mmmmsm!^ 


WHAT  ISA  CHRISTIAN? 
T{]  R  STUDYfiFTJlEISIBLE 
A  TALK  ^N  B^2?KS. 


4;ir7^^^  c/^/^cVe^t 


ADDRESSES 


BY 

Henry  Drummond,  F.R.S.E.,  F.G.S. 


The  Greatest  Thing  in  the  World 
pax  vobiscum 

The  Changed  Life 
"First  I" 

How  TO  LEARN  How 

What  is  a  Christian? 

The  Study  of  the  Bible 
A  Talk  on  Books 


philadelphla 

HENRY    ALTEMUS 

1893 


Copyright 
Bv  HENRY  ALTEMUS 

1891 


Henry  ALXBMUi 
Bookbinder 

PHILADELPHUi 


SANTA   BAI^BAI^A 


D7 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH 


OF 


HENRY  DRUMMOND,  F.  R.  S.  L,  F.  G.  S. 


pROF.  HENRY  DRUMMOND  was 
bom  in  185 1  in  Stirling,  Scotland, 
where  his  father,  who  bore  the  same 
name,  was  a  justice  of  the  peace.  Young 
Henry  early  developed  a  bent  for  serious 
study,  and  after  some  preliminary  train- 
ing in  private  schools  was  sent  to  the 
University  of  Edinburg,  and  later  to  that 
of  Tubingen,  in  Germany.  At  both  these 
seats  of  learning  his  rare  gifts  marked 
him  out  among  his  classmates  as  a  young 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH   OF 


man  of  especial  promise.  Having  deter- 
mined on  a  ministerial  career,  lie  passed 
througli  the  Free  Cliurcli  Divinity  Hall, 
and  after  his  ordination  was  appointed  to 
a  mission-station  at  Malta.  Here  he  em- 
ployed his  leisure  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
favorite  studies,  Theology  and  Science, 
boldly  grappling  with  the  problems  pre- 
sented by  the  most  recent  researches  and 
developments  of  the  latter  in  the  effort 
to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  the  spirit 
and  essence  of  the  former. 

The  result  of  these  studies  was  made 
apparent  when,  on  his  return  to  Scotland 
in  1877,  the  brilliant  young  man,  barely 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  was  appointed 
Lecturer  in  Science  at  the  Free  Church 
College  in  Glasgow.  It  was  yet  more 
apparent  when,  in  1883,  the  free  fruition 


HENRY   DRUMMOND,    F.  R.  S.  E.,    F.  G.  S.       5 

of  his  thought  and  experience  was  pre- 
sented to  the  world  in  a  remarkable  book 
entitled  '*  Natural  Laws  in  the  Spiritual 
World.  ^ '  This  book  might  be  looked  upon 
as  in  some  sort  an  amplification  of  the 
theme  which  Tennyson  also  had  chosen  in 
that  magnificent  though  illy-named  poem, 
*'The  Higher  Pantheism,*'  and  might 
have  taken  for  its  text  the  pregnant  line, 

And  if  God  thunders  by  law,  the  thunder  is  still 
His  voice. 

The  book  found  at  once  a  hearty  response. 
It  ran  through  thirty  editions  in  England, 
and  the  presses  are  not  yet  still.  It  was 
republished  in  America.  It  was  trans- 
lated into  French,  German,  Dutch,  and 
Norwegian.  '  It  has  already  become  a 
classic 


6  BIOGRAPHICAI.  SKETCH  OF 

In  1884  ^^  became  Professor  of  Science 
in  the  Free  Church  College.  He  had 
already  established  a  firm  friendship  with 
Prof.  Geikie,  a  man  of  kindred  tastes  and 
abilities,  with  whom  he  soon  after  started 
on  an  extended  tour  through  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  South  Africa.  Some  of 
the  results  of  his  travels  were  given  to 
the  world  in  a  little  work  entitled  * '  Trop- 
ical Africa,"  and  in  other  monographs. 

In  1889  he  was  invited  to  make  an 
address  at  Dr.  Moody's  college  at  Oxford. 
This  took  the  form  of  a  brilliant  essay 
entitled  *'The  Greatest  Thing  in  the 
World.*'  Its  publication  in  book  form 
was  instantly  demanded.  Slight  as  was 
the  pamphlet  in  bulk,  its  success  more 
than  repeated  the  success  of  his  first 
literary    effort.       Nearly   a   quarter   of    a 


HENRY  DRUMMOND,    F.  R.  S.  E.,    F.  G.  S.       ^ 

million  copies  were  sold  in  Great  Britain 
alone.  The  second  and  third  of  the  same 
series,  **  Pax  Vobiscum  "  (**  Peace  be  with 
You'O  and  **The  Changed  Life,''  met 
with  a  sale  equally  extraordinary.  An 
address  to  boys  entitled  **  First,"  de- 
livered originally  in  Glasgow,  together 
with  *'A  Talk  on  Books,  '  completes 
the  list  of  Prof.  Drummond's  published 
books.  It  is  significant  of  the  author's 
modesty,  self-restraint,  and  singleness  of 
mind  that  while  the  public  is  clamoring 
for  every  line  he  may  choose  to  give  them 
he  withholds  the  manuscript  of  numerous 
addresses,  spoken  but  never  printed,  and 
that  his  published  books  represent  only 
the  merest  fraction  of  his  intellectual 
life-work.  Indeed,  he  consented  to  the 
issue  of  **The  Changed  Life"  only  after 


8  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH   OF 

■  the  accidental  discovery,  while  travelling 
last  year  in  California,  of  a  mangled 
edition  taken  down  from  shorthand  notes 
at  the  time  the  address  was  delivered. 

Prof.  Drummond  has  a  singular  union 
of  gifts.  As  a  rule,  the  glory  of  the 
orator  is  one  thing,  and  the  glor>^  of  the 
writer  is  another.  Prof.  Drummond  is 
one  of  the  few  brilliant  exceptions  to 
that  rule.  How  often  do  we  find  the 
impassioned  sentences  of  the  orator  turn 
cold  and  lifeless  in  the  printed  page ! 
How  often  does  the  brilliant  writer  seem 
stilted  and  unnatural  in  spoken  word  I 

Judged  as  a  writer,  he  has  command 
of  a  vigorous,  nervous,  flexible  style. 
His  words  are  simple,  he  loves  monosyl- 
lables more  than  polysyllables,  and  Saxon 
more  than    "Latin.     He   has  a  wealth  of 


HENRY   DRUMMOND,    F,  R.  S.  E.,    F.  G.  S.       9 

illustrations  to  draw  upon — illustrations 
that  are  worthy  of  the  name  and  do  illus- 
trate, do  cast  a  flood  of  light  upon  his 
meaning.  Yet  these  illustrations  are  of 
the  homeliest  sort.  They  are  drawn  from 
life  more  than  from  books.  They  are  not 
stock  figures  of  speech.  They  are  the 
fruit  of  long  and  minute  observation; 
they  indicate  a  brain  that  is  ever  active 
to  seize  the  multiple  analogies  presented 
by  the  world  around  us.  The  author  has 
thought  and  studied  much,  but  he  has 
seen  more.  He  does  not  misjudge  his 
audience.  He  makes  no  ostentatious 
effort  to  soar  above  them,  nor  is  he  guilty 
of  any  ostentatious  condescension.  He 
says  his  say  in  straight,  honest  fashion ; 
his  rhetoric  has  a  robust  sincerity  that 
convinces  as  well  as  thrills. 


10  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

For  the  first  time  these  works  of  Pro- 
fessor Drummond  are  grouped  and  pub- 
lished in  a  single  volume,  with  the  con- 
fidence that  their  merits  will  command 
millions  of  readers  and  prove  a  source 
of  untold  blessings.  As  a  Christian  peo- 
ple we  need  just  such  originality  and 
energy  of  thought,  and  as  a  busy  people 
we  require  what  we  read  to  be  in  con- 
venient and  economic  form. 


THE  GREATEST  THING 


IN 


THE  WORLD 


Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men 
and  of  angels,  and  have  not  Love,  I  am  be- 
come as  sounding  brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal. 
And  though  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and 
iindervStand  all  m3^steries,  and  all  knowledge; 
and  though  I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  could 
remove  mountains,  and  have  not  Love,  I  am 
nothing.  And  though  I  bestow  all  my  goods 
to  fe^d  the  poor,  and  though  I  give  my  body 
to  be  burned,  and  have  not  Love,  it  profiteth 
me  nothing. 


Love  sufferetli  long,  and  is  kind; 

Love  envieth  not; 

Love  vauntetli  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up^ 

Doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly, 

Seeketh  not  her  own, 

Is  not  easily  provoked, 

Tliinketh  no  evil ; 

Rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity, 

but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth; 

Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things, 

hopeth  all  things, 

endureth  all  things. 


Love  never  faileth :  but  whether  there  be 
prophecies,  they  shall  fail ;  whether  there  be 
tongues,  they  shall  cease;  whether  there  be 
knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away.  For  we 
know  in  part,  and  we  prophesy  in  part.  But 
when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  then  that 
which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away.  When  I 
was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood 
as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child :  but  when  I 
became  a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things. 
For  now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly;  but 
then  face  to  face:  now  I  knov»^  in  part;  but 
then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  know^n. 
And  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  Love,  these  three ; 
but  the  greatest  of  these  is  Love." — i  Cor.  xiii. 


THE  GREATEST  THING 
IN   THE  WORLD. 


T^VERY  one  lias  asked  himself  the 
great  question  of  antiquity  as  of 
the  modem  world :  What  is  the  stim- 
mum  bonum — the  supreme  good?  You 
have  life  before  you.  Once  only  you 
can  live  it.  What  is  the  noblest  object 
of  desire,  the  supreme  gift  to  covet? 

We  have  been  accustomed  to  be  told 
that  the  greatest  thing  in  the  religious 
world  is  Faith.      That  great  word  has 


1 6  THE)  GREATEST  THING 

been  the  key-note  for  centuries  of  the 
popular  religion;  and  we  have  easily 
learned  to  look  upon  it  as  the  greatest 
thing  in  the  world.  Well,  we  are  wrong. 
If  we  have  been  told  that,  we  may  miss 
the  mark.  I  have  taken  you,  in  the 
chapter  which  I  have  just  read,  to  Chris- 
tianity at  its  source;  and  there  we  have 
seen,  ' '  The  greatest  of  these  is  love. '  * 
It  is  not  an  oversight.  Paul  was  speak- 
ing of  faith  just  a  moment  before.  He 
says,  ' '  If  I  have  all  faith,  so  that  I  can 
remove  mountains,  and  have  not  love,  I 
am  nothing.'*  So  far  from  forgetting 
he  deliberately  contrasts  them,  ''Now 
abideth  Faith,  Hope,  Love,"  and  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation  the  decision 
falls,  "The  greatest  of  these  is  Love." 
And  it  is  not  prejudice.     A  man  is  apt 


IN  THK  WORLD.  1 7 


to  recommend  to  others  his  own  strong 
point.  lyove  was  not  Paul's  strong  point. 
The  observing  student  can  detect  a  beau- 
tiful tenderness  growing  and  ripening  all 
through  his  character  as  Paul  gets  old ; 
but  the  hand  that  wrote,  *'The  greatest 
of  these  is  love,"  when  we  meet  it  first, 
IS  stained  with  blood. 

Nor  is  this  letter  to  the  Corinthians 
peculiar  in  singling  out  love  as  the  sum- 
mum  bonum.  The  masterpieces  of  Chris- 
tianity are  agreed  about  it.  Peter  says, 
**  Above  all  things  have  fervent  love 
among  yourselves."  Above  all  things. 
And  John  goes  farther,  **God  is  love." 
And  you  remember  the  profound  remark 
which  Paul  makes  elsewhere,  * '  Love  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  Did  you  ever 
think  what  he  meant  by  that  ?     In  those 


1 8  THE  GREATEST  THING 

days  men  were  working  their  passage  to 
Heaven  by  keeping  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  hundred  and  ten  other 
commandments  which  they  had  manufac- 
tured out  of  them.  Christ  said,  I  will 
show  you  a  more  simple  way.  If  you 
do  one  thing,  you  will  do  these  hundred 
and  ten  things,  without  ever  thinking 
about  them.  If  you  love,  you  will  un- 
consciously fulfil  the  whole  law.  And 
you  can  readily  see  for  yourselves  how 
that  must  be  so.  Take  any  of  the  com- 
mandments. "  Thou  shalt  have  no  other 
gods  before  Me."  If  a  man  love  Gk>d, 
you  will  not  require  to  tell  him  that. 
Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  that  law.  ''Take 
not  His  name  in  vain."  Would  he  ever 
dream  of  taking  His  name  in  vain  if  he 
loved  him?      ''Remember   the   Sabbath 


IN  THE  WORLD.  1 9 


day  to  keep  it  holy. '  *  Would  he  not  be 
too  glad  to  have  one  day  in  seven  to  dedi- 
cate more  exclusively  to  the  object  of  his 
affection?  Love  would  fulfil  all  these 
laws  regarding  God.  And  so,  if  he  loved 
Man,  you  would  never  think  of  telling 
him  to  honor  his  father  and  mother.  He 
could  not  do  anything  else.  It  would 
be  preposterous  to  tell  him  not  to  kill. 
You  could  only  insult  him  if  you  sug- 
gested that  he  should  not  steal — how 
could  he  steal  from  those  he  loved?  It 
would  be  superfluous  to  beg  him  not  to 
bear  false  witness  against  his  neighbor. 
If  he  loved  him  it  would  be  the  last  thing 
he  would  do.  And  you  would  never 
drenm  of  urging  him  not  to  covet  what 
his  neighbors  had.  He  would  rather 
they  possessed  it  than  himself.      In  this 


2^    GREATEST  THING  IN  THE  WORLD. 

way  **Love  is  tlie  fulfilling  of  the  law." 
It  is  the  rule  for  fulfilling  all  rules,  the 
new  commandment  for  keeping  all  the 
old  commandments,  Christ's  one  secret 
of  the  Christian  life. 

Now  Paul  had  learned  that;  and  in 
this  noble  eulogy  he  has  given  us  the 
most  wonderful  and  original  account  ex- 
tant of  the  summu7n  bomim.  We  may 
divide  it  into  three  parts.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  short  chapter,  we  have 
lyove  contrasted ;  in  the  heart  of  it,  we 
have  Love  analyzed;  toward  the  end,  we 
have  Love  defended  as  the  supreme  gift. 


THE   CONTRAST. 


XDAUL  begins  by  contrasting  Love  with 
other  things  that  rnen  in  those  days 
thought  much  of.  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  go  over  those  things  in  detail.  Their 
inferiority  is  already  obvious. 

He  contrasts  it  with  eloquence.  And 
what  a  noble  gift  it  is,  the  power  of  play- 
ing upon  the  souls  and  wills  of  men,  and 
rousing  them  to  lofty* purposes  and  holy 
deeds.  Paul  says,  * '  If  I  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have 
not  love,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass, 
or  a  tinkling    cymbal.**       And  we    all 

21 


22  THK  GREATEST  THING 

know  why.  We  have  all  felt  the  brazen- 
ness  of  words  without  emotion,  the  hol- 
lo wness,  the  unaccountable  unpersuasive- 
uess,  of  eloquence  behind  which  lies  no 
Love. 

He  contrasts  it  with  prophecy.  He 
contrasts  it  with  mysteries.  He  con- 
trasts it  with  faith.  He  contrasts  it 
with  charity.  Why  is  Love  greater  than 
faith?  Because  the  end  is  greater  than 
the  means.  And  why  is  it  greater  than 
charity?  Because  the  whole  is  greater 
than  the  part.  Love  is  greater  than 
faith,  because  the  end  is  greater  than  the 
means.  What  is  the  use  of  having  faith  ? 
It  is  to  connect  the  soul  with  God.  Aiid 
what  is  the  object  of  connecting  man  with 
God?  That  he  may  become  like  God. 
But   God    is    Love.       Hence   Faith,   the 


IN  THE  WORLD.  23 

means,  is  in  order  to  Love,  the  end. 
I/>ve,  therefore,  obviously  is  greater  than 
faith.  It  is  greater  than  charity,  again, 
because  the  whole  is  greater  than  a  part. 
Charity  is  only  a  little  bit  of  Love,  one 
of  the  innumerable  avenues  of  Love,  and 
there  may  even  be,  and  there  is,  a  great 
deal  of  charity  without  Love.  It  is  a  very 
easy  thing  to  toss  a  copper  to  a  beggar  on 
the  street;  it  is  generally  an  easier  thing 
than  not  to  do  it.  Yet  Love  is  just  as 
often  in  the  withholding.  We  purchase 
relief  from  the  sympathetic  feelings  roused 
by  the  spectacle  of  misery,  at  the  copper*  s 
cost.  It  is  too  cheap — too  cheap  for  us, 
and  often  too  dear  for  the  beggar.  If  we 
really  loved  him  we  would  either  do  more 
for  him,  or  less. 

Then  Paul   contrasts   it  with   sacrifice 


24  -THE  GREATEST  THING 

and  martyrdom.  And  I  beg  tlie  little 
band  of  would-be  missionaries — and  I  have 
the  Honor  to  call  some  of  you  by  this 
name  for  the  first  time — to  remember  that 
though  you  give  your  bodies  to  be  burned, 
and  have  not  Love,  it  profits  nothing — 
nothing  !  You  can  take  nothing  greater 
to  the  heathen  world  than  the  impress 
and  reflection  of  the  Love  of  God  upon 
your  own  character.  That  is  the  univer- 
sal language.  It  will  take  you  years  to 
speak  in  Chinese,  or  in  the  dialects  of 
India.  From  the  day  you  land,  that  lan- 
guage of  Love,  understood  by  all,  will  be 
pouring  forth  its  unconscious  eloquence. 
It  is  the  man  who  is  the  missionary,  it  is 
not  his  words.  His  character  is  his  mes- 
sage. In  the  heart  of  Africa,  among  the 
great  Lakes,   I  have   come  across  black 


IN   THE  WORLD.  25 


men  and  women  who  remembered  the 
only  white  man  they  ever  saw  before — 
David  Livingstone;  and  as  you  cross  his 
footsteps  in  that  dark  continent,  men's 
faces  light  up  as  they  speak  of  the  kind 
Doctor  who  passed  there  years  ago.  They 
could  not  understand  him;  but  they  felt 
the  Love  that  beat  in  his  heart.  Take 
into  your  new  sphere  of  labor,  where 
you  also  mean  to  lay  down  your  life,  tliat 
simple  charm,  and  your  lifework  must 
succeed.  You  can  take  nothing  greater, 
you  need  take  nothing  less.  It  is  not 
worth  while  going  if  you  take  anything 
less.  You  may  take  every  accomplish- 
ment; you  may  be  braced  for  ever)^  sacri- 
fice; but  if  you  give  your  body  to  be 
burned,  and  have  not  Love,  it  will  profit 
you  and  the  cause  of  Christ  nothing. 


THE    ANALYSIS. 


A  FTER  contrasting  Love  with  these 
things,  Paul,  in  three  verses,  very 
short,  gives  ns  an  amazing  analysis  of 
what  this  supreme  thing  is.  I  ask  you 
to  look  at  it.  It  is  a  compound  thing, 
he  tells  us.  It  is  like  light.  As  you 
have  seen  a  man  of  science  take  a  beam 
of  light  and  pass  it  through  a  cr^'sta] 
prism,  as  you  have  seen  it  come  out  on 
the  other  side  of  the  prism  broken  up 
into  its  component  colors — red,  and  blue, 
and  yellow,  and  violet,  and  orange,  and 
all  the   colors  of  the   rainbow — so    Pan) 

26 


GRKATEST  THING  IN  THE  WORLD.     27 

passes  this  thing,  Love,  through  the 
magnificent  prism  of  his  inspired  intel- 
lect, and  it  comes  out  on  the  other  side 
broken  up  into  its  elements.  And  in 
these  few  words  we  have  what  one  might 
call  the  Spectrum  of  Love,  the  analysis 
of  lyove.  Will  you  obser\'e  what  its 
elements  are?  Will  you  notice  that 
they  have  common  names;  that  they 
are  virtues  which  v/e  hear  about  every 
day;  that  they  are  things  which  can  be 
practised  by  every  man  in  every  place 
in  life;  and  how,  by  a  multitude  of 
small  things  and  ordinary  virtues,  the 
supreme  thing,  the  summtim  bomim^  is 
made  up? 

The  Spectrum   of  Love  has  nine   in- 
gredients:— 


28  THE  GREATEST  THING 


Patience    .     .  ^ '  Love  suffereth  long.  *  * 
Kindness  .     .  ''And  is  kind." 
Generosity     .  '  ^  Love  envieth  not. ' ' 
Humility  .     .  "Love    vaunteth    not    it- 
self, is  not  puffed  up.'* 
Courtesy    .     .  *'Doth   not   behave    itself 

unseemly." 
Unselfishness    '*Seeketh  not  her  own." 
Good  Temper'^  Is  not  easily  provoked." 
Guilelessness    **Thinketh  no  evil." 
Sincerity  .     .  **Rejoicetli  not  in  iniquity, 
but     rejoiceth     in     the 
truth." 

Patience;  kindness;  generosity;  humil- 
ity; courtesy;  unselfishness;  good  tem- 
per; guilelessness;  sincerit}^ — these  make 
up  the  supreme  gift,  the  stature  of  the 
perfect  man.       You  will  observe  that  al] 


IN  THE   WORLD.  29 


are  in  relation  to  men,  in  relation  to  life, 
in  relation  to  the  known  to-day  and  the 
near  to-morrow,  and  not  to  the  unknown 
eternity.  We  hear  much  of  love  to  God; 
Christ  spoke  much  of  love  to  man.  We 
make  a  great  deal  of  peace  with  heaven; 
Christ  made  much  of  peace  on  earth. 
Religion  is  not  a  strange  or  added  thing, 
but  the  inspiration  of  the  secular  life, 
the  breathing  of  an  eternal  spirit  through 
this  temporal  world.  The  supreme  thing, 
in  short,  is  not  a  thing  at  all,  but  the  giv- 
ing of  a  further  finish  to  the  multitudi- 
nous words  and  acts  which  make  up  the 
sum  of  every  common  day. 

There  is  no  time  to  do  more  than  make 
a  passing  note  upon  each  of  these  ingredi- 
ents. Love  is  Patience.  This  is  the  nor- 
mal attitude  of  Love;  Love  passive.  Love 


30  THE   GREATEST   THING 

waiting  to  begin;  not  in  a  hurry;  calm; 
ready  to  do  its  work  when  the  summons 
comes,  but  meantime  wearing  the  orna- 
ment of  a  meek  and  quiet  vSpirit.  Love 
suffers  long;  beareth  all  things;  believeth 
all  things;  hopeth  all  things.  For  I^ove 
understands,  and  therefore  waits. 

Kindfiess.  Love  active.  Have  you 
ever  noticed  how  much  of  Christ's  life 
was  spent  in  doing  kind  things — in 
merely  diOm^  kind  things?  Run  over  it 
Vv^ith  that  in  view,  and  you  will  find  that 
He  spent  a  great  proportion  of  His  time 
sim^ply  in  making  people  happy,  in  doing 
good  turns  to  people.  There  is  only  one 
thing  greater  than  happiness  in  the  wotld^ 
and  that  is  holiness;  and  it  is  not  in  oui 
keeping;  but  what  God  has  put  in  oui 
power  is  the  happiness  of  those  about  us. 


IN   TrfE   WORLD.  3 1 

and  that  is  largely  to  be  secured  by  our 
being  kind  to  them. 

"The  greatest  thing/'  says  someone^ 
* '  a  man  can  do  for  his  Heavenly  Father 
is  to  be  kind  to  some  of  His  other  chil- 
dren. ' '  I  wonder  why  it  is  that  we  are  not 
all  kinder  than  we  are  ?  How  much  the 
world  needs  it.  How  easily  it  is  done. 
How  instantaneously  it  acts.  How  infal- 
libly it  is  remembered.  How  super- 
abundantly it  pays  itself  back — for  there 
is  no  debtor  in  the  world  so  honorable, 
so  superbly  honorable,  as  Love.  '  *  Love 
never  faileth.*^  Love  is  success,  Love  is 
happiness,  Love  is  life.  *'Love  I  say," 
with  Browning    *'  is  energy  of  LifCc'' 

"For  life,  with  all  it  yields  of  joy  or  woe 
And  hope  and  fear, 


32  THK  GREATEST  THING 

Is  just  our  chance  o'  the  prize  of  learning  love,— 
How  love  might  be,  hath  been  indeed,  and  is.  ' 

Where  Love  is,  God  is.  He  that  dwelleth 
in  Love  dwelleth  in  God.  God  is  Love. 
Therefore  love.  Without  distinction, 
without  calculation,  without  procrastina- 
tion, love.  Lavish  it  upon  the  poor, 
where  it  is  very  easy;  especially  upon  the 
rich,  who  often  need  it  most;  most  of  all 
upon  our  equals,  where  it  is  very  difficult, 
and  for  whom  perhaps  we  each  do  least 
of  all.  There  is  a  difference  between 
trying  to  please  and  gwi?ig  pleasure. 
Give  pleasure.  Lose  no  chance  of  giv- 
ing pleasure.  For  that  is  the  ceaseless 
and  anonymous  triumph  of  a  truly  loving 
spirit  **I  shall  pass  through  this  world 
but  once.  Any  good  thing  therefore  that 
I  can  do,  or  any  kindness  that  I  can  show 


IN  THE  WORLD.  33 


to  any  human  being,  let  me  do  it  now. 
Let  me  not  defer  it  or  neglect  it,  for  I 
shall  not  pass  this  way  again. ' ' 

Generosity,  *  *  Love  envipth  not. ' ' 
This  is  love  in  competition  with  others. 
Whenever  you  attempt  a  good  work  you 
will  find  other  men  doing  the  same  kind 
of  work,  and  probably  doing  it  better. 
Envy  them  not.  Bnvy  is  a  feeling  of  ill- 
will  to  those  who  are  in  the  same  line  as 
ourselves,  a  spirit  of  covetousness  and 
detraction.  How  little  Christian  work 
even  is  a  protection  against  un-Christian 
feeling.  That  most  despicable  of  all  the 
unworthy  moods  which  cloud  a  Chris- 
tian's soul  assuredly  waits  for  us  on  the 
threshold  of  every  work,  unless  we  are 
fortified  with  this  grace  of  magnanimity. 
Only  one  thing  truly  need  the  Christian 


34  THE   GREATEST  THING 


en\y,  the  large,  rich,  generous  soul  which 
**envieth  uof 

Aud  then,  after  having  learned  all  that, 
yen  have  to  learn  this  further  thing, 
Humility — to  put  a  seal  upon  your  lips 
and  forget  what  you  have  done.  After 
you  have  been  kind,  after  Love  has  stolen 
forth  into  the  world  and  done  its  beauti- 
ful work,  go  back  into  tae  shade  again 
and  say  nothing  about  it.  Love  hides 
even  from  itself.  Love  waives  even  self- 
satisfaction.  "  Love  vaunteth  not  itself, 
is  not  puffed  up.*' 

The  fifth  ingredient  is  a  somewhat 
strange  one  to  find  in  this  summum 
boniini:  Courtesy,  This  is  Love  in  so- 
ciety. Love  in  relation  to  etiquette. 
**  Love  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly." 
Politeness   has   been   defined   as   love  in 


IN    THE    WORI.D.         .  35 

trifles.  Courtesy  is  said  to  be  love  in  little 
things.  And  the  one  secret  of  politeness 
is  to  love.  Love  cannot  behave  itself  un- 
seemly. You  can  put  the  most  untutored 
persons  into  the  highest  society,  and  if 
they  have  a  reservoir  of  Love  in  their 
heart,  they  will  not  behave  themselves 
unseemly.  They  simply  cannot  do  it. 
Carlyle  said  of  Robert  Burns  that  there 
was  no  truer  gentleman  in  Europe  than 
the  ploughman-poet.  It  was  because  he 
loved  everything — the  mouse,  and  the 
daisy,  and  all  the  things,  great  and  small, 
that  God  had  made.  So  with  this  simple 
passport  he  could  mingle  with  any  soci- 
ety, and  enter  courts  and  palaces  from  his 
little  cottage  on  the  banks  of  the  Ayr. 
You  know  the  meaning  of  the  word  * '  gen- 
tleman.^*    It  means  a  gentle  man — a  man 


36  THE  GREATEST  THING 


who  does  things  gently  with  love.  And 
that  is  the  whole  art  and  mystery  of  it. 
The  gentle  man  cannot  in  the  nature  of 
things  do  an  ungentle,  an  ungentlemanly 
thing.  The  ungentle  soul,  the  inconsid- 
erate, unsympathetic  nature  cannot  do 
anything  else.  "Love  doth  not  behave 
itself  unseemly.*' 

Unselfishness,  ' '  Love  seeketh  not  her 
own."  Observe:  Seeketh  not  even  that 
which  is  her  own.  In  Britain  the  English- 
man is  devoted,  and  rightly,  to  his  rights. 
But  there  come  times  when  a  man  may 
exercise  even  the  higher  right  of  giving 
up  his  rights.  Yet  Paul  does  not  sum- 
mon us  to  give  up  our  rights.  Love 
strikes  much  deeper.  It  would  have  us 
not  seek  them  at  all,  ignore  them,  elimi- 
nate the  personal  element  altogether  from 


IN  THE  WORLD.  3^ 

our  calculations.  It  is  not  hard  to  give 
up  our  rights.  They  are  often  external. 
The  difficult  thing  is  to  give  up  ourselves. 
The  more  difficult  thing  still  is  not  to  seek 
things  for  ourselves  at  all.  After  we  have 
sought  them,  bought  them,  won  them, 
deser\'ed  them,  we  have  taken  the  cream 
off  them  for  ourselves  already.  Little 
cross  then  to  give  them  up.  But  not  to 
seek  them,  to  look  every  man  not  on  his 
own  things,  but  on  the  things  of  others — 
id  opus  est,  * '  Seekest  thou  great  things 
for  thyself?"  said  the  prophet;  ^'' seek 
them  noty  Why?  Because  there  is  no 
greatness  in  things.  Things  cannot  be 
great.  The  only  greatness  is  unselfish 
love.  Even  self-denial  in  itself  is  noth- 
ing, is  almost  a  mistake.  Only  a  great 
purpose  or  a  mightier  love  can  justify  the 


^8  THK  GREATEST  THING 

waste.  It  is  more  difficult,  I  have  said, 
not  to  seek  our  ov/n  at  all,  than,  having 
sought  it,  to  give  it  up.  I  must  take  that 
back.  It  is  only  true  of  a  partly  selfish 
heart.  Nothing  is  a  hardship  to  Love,  and 
nothing  is  hard.  I  believe  that  Christ's 
"yoke"  is  easy.  Christ's  "yoke"  is  just 
his  way  of  taking  life.  And  I  believe  it  is 
an  easier  way  than  any  other.  I  believe  it 
is  a  happier  way  than  any  other.  The  most 
obvious  lesson  in  Christ's  teaching  is  that 
there  is  no  happiness  in  having  and  getting 
anything,  but  only  in  giving.  I  repeat, 
there  is  no  happiness  in  having  or  in  get- 
ting^ but  only  in  giving.  And  half  the  world 
is  on  the  wrong  scent  in  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness. They  think  it  consists  in  having 
and  getting,  and  in  being  served  by  others 
It   consists    in    giving,    and    in    serving 


IN  THK  WORLD.  39 

others.  He  that  would  be  great  among 
you,  said  Christ,  let  him  serve.  He  that 
would  be  happy,  let  him  remember  that 
there  is  but  oue  way — it  is  more  blessed, 
it  is  more  happy,  to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive. 

The  next  ingredient  is  a  very  remark- 
able one  :  Good  Temper,  '  *  Love  is  not 
easily  provoked.''  Nothing  could  be 
more  striking  than  to  find  this  here.  We 
are  inclined  to  look  upon  bad  temper  as  a 
very  harmless  weakness.  We  speak  of  it 
as  a  mere  infirmity  of  nature,  a  family 
failing,  a  matter  of  temperament,  not  a 
thing  to  take  into  very  serious  account  in 
estimating  a  man's  character.  And  yet 
here,  right  in  the  heart  of  this  analysis 
of  love,  it  finds  a  place;  and  the  Bible 
again  and  again  returns  to  condemn  it  as 


40  THE  GREATEST  THING 


one  of  the  most  destructive  elements  is 
human  nature. 

The  peculiarit)^  of  ill  tem.per  is  that  it 
is  the  vice  of  the  virtuous.  It  is  often 
the  one  blot  on  an  otherwise  noble  cha- 
racter. You  know  men  who  are  all  but 
perfect,  and  women  who  would  be  en- 
tirely perfect,  but  for  an  easily  ruffled, 
quick-tempered,  or  ** touchy"  disposition. 
This  compatibility  of  ill  temper  with 
high  moral  character  is  one  of  the  stran- 
gest and  saddest  problems  of  ethics.  The 
truth  is  there  are  two  great  classes  of  sins 
— sins  of  the  Body^  and  sins  of  the  Disposi- 
tion. The  Prodigal  Son  may  be  taken 
as  a  type  of  the  first,  the  Elder  Brother 
of  the  second.  Now,  society  has  no  doubt 
whatever  as  to  which  of  these  is  the 
worse.     Its  brand  falls,   without  a  chal- 


IN   THE   WORI^D.  4I 

lenge,  upon  the  Prodigal.  But  are  we 
right?  We  have  no  balance  to  weigh 
one  another's  sins,  and  coarser  and  finer 
are  but  human  words ;  but  faults  in  the 
higher  nature  may  be  less  venial  than 
those  in  the  lower,  and  to  the  eye  of  Him 
who  is  Love,  a  sin  against  Love  may  seem 
a  hundred  times  more  base.  No  form  of 
vice,  not  worldliness,  not  greed  of  gold, 
not  drunkenness  itself,  does  more  to  un- 
Christianize  society  than  evil  temper. 
For  embittering  life,  for  breaking  up  com- 
munities, for  destroying  the  most  sacred 
relationships,  for  devastating  homes,  for 
withering  up  men  and  women,  for  taking 
the  bloom  of  childhood,  in  short,  for  sheet 
gratuitous  misery-producing  power,  this 
influence  stands  alone.    Look  at  the  Elder 

Brother,    moral,    hard-working,    patient, 

4 


42  THE  GREATEST  THING 

dutiful — let  him  get  all  credit  for  his  vir- 
tues— look  at  this  man,  this  baby,  sulk- 
ing outside  his  own  father's  door.  ^*He 
was  angry, ' '  we  read,  ' '  and  would  not  go 
in.''  lyook  at  the  effect  upon  the  father, 
upon  the  servants,  upon  the  happiness 
of  the  guests.  Judge  of  the  effect  upon 
the  Prodigal — and  how  many  prodigals 
are  kept  out  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  by 
the  unlovely  character  of  those  who  pro- 
fess to  be  inside?  Analyze,  as  a  study 
in  Temper,  the  thunder-cloud  itself  as 
it  gathers  upon  the  Elder  Brother's  brow. 
What  is  it  made  of?  Jealousy,  anger, 
pride,  uncharity,  cruelty,  self- righteous- 
ness, touchiness,  doggedness,  sullenness, 
— these  are  the  ingredients  of  this  dark 
and  loveless  soul.  In  varying  propor- 
tions,  also,   these  are  the  ingredients  of 


IN  THK  WORI.D.  43 


^11  ill  temper.  Judge  if  such  sins  of  the 
disposition  are  not  worse  to  live  in,  and 
for  others  to  live  with,  than  sins  of  the 
body.  Did  Christ  indeed  not  answer  the 
question  Himself  when  He  said,  **I  say 
unto  you,  that  the  publicans  and  the 
harlots  go  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
before  you. ' '  There  is  really  no  place  in 
Heaven  for  a  disposition  like  this.  '  A 
man  with  such  a  mood  could  only  make 
Heaven  miserable  for  all  the  people  in  it. 
Except,  therefore,  such  a  man  be  born 
again,  he  cannot,  he  simply  cannot^  enter 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  For  it  is  per- 
fectly certain — and  you  will  not  misun- 
derstand me — that  to  enter  Heaven  a 
man  must  take  it  with  him. 

You  will  see  then  why  Temper  is  sig- 
nificant.    It  is  not  in  what  it  is  alone, 


44  THE  GREATEST  THING 

but  in  what  it  reveals.  This  is  why  I  take 
the  liberty  now  of  speaking  of  it  with 
such  unusual  plainness.  It  is  a  test  for 
love,  a  symptom,  a  revelation  of  an  un- 
loving nature  at  bottom.  It  is  the  inter- 
mittent fever  which  bespeaks  unintermit- 
tent  disease  within  ;  the  occasional  bubble 
escaping  to  the  surface  which  betrays 
some  rottenness  underneath  ;  a  sample  of 
the  most  hidden  products  of  the  soul 
dropped  involuntarily  when  off  one's 
guard ;  in  a  word,  the  lightning  form 
of  a  hundred  hideous  and  un-Christian 
sins.  For  a  want  of  patience,  a  want  of 
kindness,  a  want  of  generosity,  a  want  of 
courtesy,  a  want  of  unselfishness,  are  all 
instantaneously  symbolized  in  one  flash 
of  Temper. 

Hence  it  is  not  enough  to  deal  with  the 


IN  THE  WORLD.  45 

Temper.  We  must  go  to  the  source,  and 
change  the  inmost  nature,  and  the  angry 
humors  will  die  away  of  themselves. 
Souls  are  made  sweet  not  by  taking  the 
acid  fluids  out,  but  by  putting  something 
in — a  gi  eat  Love,  a  new  Spirit,  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  Christ,  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
interpenetrating  ours,  sweetens,  purifies, 
transforms  all.  This  only  can  eradicate 
what  is  wrong,  work  a  chemical  change, 
renovate  and  regenerate,  and  rehabilitate 
the  inner  man.  Will-power  does  not 
change  men.  Time  does  not  change 
men.  Christ  does.  Therefore  *  *  Let  that 
mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus.*'  Some  of  us  have  not  much  time 
to  lose.  Remember,  once  more,  that  this 
is  a  matter  of  life  or  death.  I  cannot 
help  speaking  urgently,    for   myself,   for 


46  THE  GREATEST  THING 

yourselves.  * '  Whoso  shall  offend  one  of 
these  little  ones,  which  believe  in  me,  it 
were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were 
hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were 
drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.'^  That 
is  to  say,  it  is  the  deliberate  verdict  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  that  it  is  better  not  to  live 
than  not  to  love.  //  is  better  not  to  live 
than  not  to  love. 

Gtcilelessness  and  Sincerity  may  be  dis- 
missed almost  with  a  word.  Guileless- 
ness  is  the  grace  for  suspicious  people. 
And  the  possession  of  it  is  the  great  secret 
of  personal  influence.  You  will  find,  if 
you  think  for  a  moment,  that  the  people 
who  influence  5'ou  are  people  who  believe 
in  you.  In  an  atmosphere  of  suspicion 
men  shrivel  up;  but  in  that  atmosphere 
they  expand,  and  find  encouragement  and 


IN  THE  WORI.D.  47 

educative  fellowship.  It  is  a  wonderful 
thing  that  here  and  there  in  this  hard, 
uncharitable  world  there  should  still  be 
left  a  few  rare  souls  who  think  no  evil. 
This  is  the  great  unworldliness.  lyove 
**thinketh  no  evil,'^  imputes  no  motive, 
sees  the  bright  side,  puts  the  best  con- 
struction on  every  action.  What  a  de- 
lightful state  of  mind  to  live  in!  What  a 
stimulus  and  benediction  even  to  meet 
with  it  for  a  day!  To  be  trusted  is  to  be 
saved.  And  if  we  try  to  influence  or  ele- 
vate others,  we  shall  soon  see  that  success 
is  in  proportion  to  their  belief  of  our  belief 
in  them.  For  the  respect  of  another  is 
the  first  restoration  of  the  self-respect  a 
man  has  lost;  our  ideal  of  what  he  is 
becomes  to  him  the  hope  and  pattern  of 
what  he  may  become. 


48  THK  GREATEST  THING 

**  Love  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  re 
joiceth  in  the  truth."  I  have  called  this 
Sincerity  from  the  words  rendered  in  the 
Authorized  Version  by  "rejoiceth  in  the 
truth."  And,  certainly,  were  this  the 
real  translation,  nothing  could  be  more 
just.  For  he  who  loves  will  love  Truth 
not  less  than  men.  He  will  rejoice  in  the 
Truth — rejoice  not  in  what  he  has  been 
taught  to  believe;  not  in  this  Church's 
doctrine  or  in  that;  not  in  this  ism  or  in 
that  ism;  but  ''in  the  Tjmthy  He  will 
accept  only  what  is  real ;  he  will  strive  to 
get  at  facts;  he  will  search  for  Truth  with 
a  humble  and  unbiassed  mind,  and  cherish 
whatever  he  finds  at  any  sacrifice.  But 
the  more  literal  translation  of  the  Revised 
Version  calls  for  just  such  a  sacrifice  for 
truth's  sake  here.     For  what  Paiil  really 


IN  TUn  WORLD.  49 

meant  is^  as  we  there  read,  "Rejoiceth 
not  in  unrighteousness,  but  rejoiceth  with 
the  truth, ' '  a  quality  which  probably  no 
one  English  word — and  certainly  not  Sin- 
ceriiy — adequately  defines.  It  includes, 
perhaps  more  strictly,  the  self-restraint 
which  refuses  to  make  capital  out  of 
others'  faults;  the  charity  which  delights 
not  in  exposing  the  weakness  of  others, 
but  "  covereth  all  things;"  the  sincerity 
of  purpose  which  endeavors  to  see  things 
as  they  are,  and  rejoices  to  find  them 
better  than  suspicion  feared  or  calumny 
denounced. 

So  much  for  the  analysis  of  Love. 
Now  the  business  of  our  lives  is  to  have 
these  things  fitted  into  our  characteis. 
That  is  the  supreme  work  to  which  we 
need   to  address  ourselves  in  this  world, 


50  THK  GREATEST  THING 

to  learn  Love.  Is  life  not  full  of  oppor- 
tunities for  learning  Love?  Bver>^  man 
and  woman  every  day  has  a  thousand  of 
them.  The  world  is  not  a  playground; 
it  is  a  schoolroom.  Life  is  not  a  holiday, 
but  an  education.  And  the  one  eternal 
lesson  for  us  all  is  how  better  we  can  love. 
What  makes  a  man  a  good  cricketer? 
Practice.  What  makes  a  man  a  good 
artist,  a  good  sculptor,  a  good  musician  ? 
Practice.  What  makes  a  man  a  good 
linguist,  a  good  stenographer  ?  Practice. 
What  makes  a  man  a  good  man  ?  Prac- 
tice. Nothing  else.  There  is  nothing 
capricious  about  religion.  We  do  not  get 
the  soul  in  different  ways,  under  different 
laws,  from  those  in  which  we  get  the 
body  and  the  mind.  If  a  man  does  not 
exercise   his  arm   he  develops  no  biceps 


IN  THE  WORl,D,  5I 

muscle;  and  if  a  man  does  not  exercise 
his  soul,  he  acquires  no  muscle  in  his  soul, 
no  strength  of  character,  no  vigor  of 
moral  fibre,  nor  beauty  of  spiritual 
growth.  Ivove  is  not  a  thing  of  enthusi- 
astic emotion.  It  is  a  rich,  strong,  man- 
ly, vigorous  expression  of  the  whole 
round  Christian  character — the  Christlike 
nature  in  its  fullest  development.  And 
the  constituents  of  this  great  character 
are  only  to  be  built  up  by  ceaseless 
.practice. 

What  was  Christ  doing  in  the  car- 
penter's shop?  Practising.  Though  per- 
fect, we  read  that  He  learned  obedience, 
and  grew  in  wisdom  and  in  favor  with 
God.  Do  not  quarrel  therefore  with  youi 
lot  in  life.  Do  not  complain  of  its  never- 
ceasing  cares,'  its  petty  environment,  the 


52  THE   GREATEST  THING 

vexations  you  have  to  stand,  the  small 
and  sordid  souls  you  have  to  live  and 
work  with.  Above  all,  do  not  resent 
temptation;  do  not  be  perplexed  because 
it  seems  to  thicken  round  you  more  and 
more,  and  ceases  neither  for  eflfort  nor 
for  agony  nor  prayer.  That  is  your  prac- 
tice. That  is  the  practice  which  God 
appoints  you;  and  it  is  having  its  work 
in  making  you  patient,  and  humble,  and 
generous,  and  unselfish,  and  kind,  and 
courteous.  Do  not  grudge  the  hand  that 
is  moulding  the  still  too  shapeless  image 
within  you.  It  is  growing  more  beauti- 
ful, though  you  see  it  not,  and  every 
touch  of  temptation  may  add  to  its  per- 
fection. Therefore  keep  in  the  midst  of 
life.  Do  not  isolate  yourself  Be  among 
men,    and    among    things,  •  and    among 


IN  THK  WORLD.  53 

troubles,  and  difficulties,  and  obstacles. 
You  remember  Goethe's  words:  Es  bildei 
ein  Talent  sich  in  der  Stille^  Dock  ein 
Charakter  in  dem  Strom  der  Welt. 
* '  Talent  develops  itself  in  solitude ; 
character  in  the  stream  of  life.*'  Talent 
develops  itself  in  solitude — the  talent  of 
prayer,  of  faith,  of  meditation,  of  seeing 
the  unseen ;  Character  grows  in  the 
stream  of  the  world's  life.  That  chiefly 
is  where  men  are  to  learn  love. 

How  ?  Now,  how  ?  To  make  it  easier, 
I  have  named  a  few  of  the  elements  of 
love.  But  these  are  only  elements. 
Ivove  itself  can  never  be  defined.  Light 
is  a  something  more  than  the  sum  of 
its  ingredients — a  glowing,  dazzling, 
tremulous  ether.  And  love  is  something 
more  than  all' its  elements — a  palpitating, 


54  THE  GREATEST  THING 

quivering,  sensitive,  livings  thing.  By 
synthesis  of  all  the  colors,  men  can 
make  whiteness,  they  cannot  make  light. 
By  synthesis  of  all  the  virtues,  men  can 
make  virtue,  they  cannot  make  love. 
How  then  are  we  to  have  this  transcen- 
dent living  whole  conveyed  into  our 
souls?  We  brace  our  wills  to  secure  it. 
We  try  to  copy  those  who  have  it.  We 
lay  down  rules  about  it.  We  watch. 
We  pray.  But  these  things  alone  will 
not  bring  Love  into  our  nature.  Love 
is  an  effect.  And  only  as  we  fulfil  the 
right  condition  can  we  have  the  effect 
produced.  Shall  I  tell  you  what  the 
cause  is? 

If  you  turn  to  the  Revised  Version 
of  the  First  Epistle  of  John  you  will 
find  these  words:  ^'We  love  because  He 


IN  THE  WORLD.  55 

first  loved  U6."  **We  love,"  not  *'We 
love  Him.'''*  That  is  the  way  the  old 
version  has  it,  and  it  is  quite  wrong. 
**  We  love — because  He  first  loved  us.'* 
Look  at  that  word  '*  because.**  It  is 
the  cause  of  which  I  have  spoken.  ^^Be^ 
cause  He  first  loved  us,'*  the  eflfect  fol- 
lows that  we  love,  we  love  Him,  we  love 
all  men.  We  cannot  help  it.  Because 
He  loved  us,  we  love,  we  love  every- 
body. Our  heart  is  slowly  changed. 
Contemplate  the  love  of  Christ,  and  you 
will  love.  Stand  before  that  mirror,  re- 
flect Christ's  character,  and  you  will  be 
changed  into  the  same  image  from  ten- 
derness to  tenderness.  There  is  no  other 
way.  You  cannot  love  to  order.  You 
can  only  look  at  the  lovely  object,  and 
fall  in  love  with  it,  and  g^row  into  like- 


56  THE  GREATEST  THING 

ness  to  it  And  so  look  afe  this  Perfect 
Character,  this  Perfect  lyife.  Look  at 
the  great  Sacrifice  as  He  laid  down  Him- 
self, all  through  life,  and  upon  the  Cross 
of  Calvary;  and  you  must  love  Plim. 
And  loving  Him,  you  must  become  like 
Him.  Love  begets  love.  It  is  a  process 
of  induction.  Put  a  piece  of  iron  in  the 
presence  of  an  electrified  body,  and  that 
piece  of  iron  for  a  time  becomes  elec- 
trified. It  is  changed  into  a  temporary 
magnet  in  the  mere  presence  of  a  per- 
manent magnet,  and  as  long  as  you  leave 
the  two  side  by  side,  they  are  both  mag- 
nets alike.  Remain  side  by  side  with 
Him  who  loved  us,  and  gave  Himself  for 
us,  and  }^ou  too  will  become  a  permanent 
magnet,  a  permanently  attractive  force ; 
and    like    Him    yon    will   draw   all   men 


IN  THE  V/ORLD.  57 

unto  you,  like  Him  you  will  be  drawn 
unto  all  men.  THat  is  the  inevitable 
effect  of  Ivove.  Any  man  wbo  fulfils 
that  cause  must  have  that  effect  pro- 
duced in  him.  Try  to  give  up  the  idea 
that  religion  comes  to  us  by  chance,  or 
by  mystery,  or  by  caprice.  It  comes  to 
us  b}^  natural  law,  or  by  supernatural 
law,  for  all  law  is  Divine.  Edward  Ir- 
ving went  to  see  a  dying  boy  once,  and 
when  he  entered  the  room  he  just  put  his 
hand  on  the  sufferer's  head,  and  said, 
**My  boy,  God  loves  you,"  and  went 
away.  And  the  boy  started  from  his 
bed,  and  called  out  to  the  people  in  the 
house,  '* God  loves  me!  God  loves  me!" 
It  changed  that  boy.  The  sense  that  God 
loved  him  overpowered  him,  melted  him 
down,  and  beean  the  creating  of  a  new 

5 


58    GREATEST  THING  IN  THE  WORI.D. 

heart  in  him.  And  that  is  how  the  love 
of  God  melts  down  the  unlovely  heart 
in  man,  and  begets  in  him  the  new  crea- 
ture, who  is  patient  and  humble  and 
gentle  and  unselfish.  And  there  is  no 
other  way  to  get  it.  There  is  no  mystery 
about  it.  We  love  others,  we  love  every- 
body, we  love  our  enemies,  because  He 
first  loved  us. 


THE    DEFENCE. 


"^T  OW  I  Have  a  closing  sentence  or  two 
to  add  about  Paul's  reason  for  sing- 
ling out  love  as  the  supreme  possession. 
It  is  a  very  remarkable  reason.  In  a 
single  word  it  is  this :  it  lasts,  * '  Love, '  * 
urges  Paul,  *' never  faileth."  Then  he 
begins  again  one  of  his  marvellous  lists 
of  the  great  things  of  the  day.  and  ex- 
poses them  one  by  one.  He  runs  over 
the  things  that  men  thought  were  going 
to  last,  and  shows  that  they  are  all  fleet- 
ing, temporaiy,  passing  away. 

'^Whether  there  be  prophecies,    they 

59 


6o  THE  GREATEST  THING 


shall  fail.**  It  was  the  mother's  am- 
bition for  licr  boy  in  those  days  that  he 
should  become  a  prophet.  For  hundreds 
of  years  God  had  never  spoken  by  means 
of  any  prophet,  and  at  that  time  the 
prophet  was  greater  than  the  King.  Men 
waited  wistfully  for  another  messenger  to 
come,  and  hung  upon  his  lips  when  he 
appeared  as  upon  the  very  voice  of  God. 
Paul  says,  ''Whether  there  be  proph- 
ecies, they  shall  fail/*  This  book  is  full 
of  prophecies.  One  by  one  they  have 
**  failed;'*  that  is,  having  been  fulfilled 
their  work  is  finished ;  they  have  nothing 
more  to  do  now  in  the  world  excet^t  to 
feed  a  devout  man's  faith. 

Then  Paul  talks  about  tongues.  That 
was  another  thing  that  was  greatly  cov- 
eted.    *  *  Whether  there  be  tongues,  they 


IN  THE  WORLD.  6l 


shall  cease.'*      As  we   all   know,   many, 
manv  centuries  have  passed  since  tonp^ues 
have  been  known   in  this  world.     They 
have  ce:iscd.     Take  it  in  any  sense  you 
like.      Take    it,    for   illustration   merely, 
as  languages  in  general — a  sense  which 
was  not  in  Paul's  mind  at  all,  and  which 
though    it   cannot    give    us   the   specific 
lesson  will  point  the  general  truth.     Con- 
sider the  words  in  which  these  chapters 
were  written— Greek.     It  has  gone.    Take 
the  Latin— the  other  great  tongue  of  those 
days.     It  ceased  long  ago.     Look  at  the 
Indian    language.      It    is   ceasing.      The 
language   of  Wales,    of    Ireland,    of  the 
Scottish    Highlands   is  dying  before  our 
e\'-.       The    most   popular   book    in    the 
English  tongue  at  the  present  time,  ex- 
cept the  Bible,  is  one  of  Dickens's  works. 


62  THK   GREATEST  THING 

his  Pickunck  Papers,  It  is  largely  writ- 
ten in  the  language  of  I^ndon  street-life ; 
and  experts  assure  us  that  in  fifty  years 
it  will  be  unintelligible  to  the  average 
English   reader. 

Then  Paul  goes  farther,  and  with  even 
greater  boldness  adds,  *'  Whether  there  be 
knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away.**  The 
wisdom  of  the  ancients,  where  is  it?  It 
is    wliollv    l;;o:.  schoolboy    to-day 

knows  more  than  Sir  Isaac  Newton  knew. 
His  knowledge  has  vanished  away.  You 
put  yesterday's  new^spaper  in  the  fire. 
Its  knowledge  has  vanished  away.  You 
buy  the  old  editions  of  the  great  encyclo- 
pcedias  for  a  few  pence.  Their  know- 
ledge has  vanished  away.  Look  how  the 
coach  has  been  superseded  by  the  use 
of    steam.       Look    how    electricitv     ha* 


IN   TH5   WORLD.  63 


superseded  that,  and  swept  a  hundred 
almost  new  inventions  into  oblivion. 
One  of  the  greatest  living  authorities,  Sir 
William  Thompson,  said  the  other  day, 
•*The  steam-engine  is  passing  away.'* 
**  Whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall 
vanish  away.''  At  every  workshop  you 
will  see,  in  the  back  yard,  a  heap  of  old 
iron,  a  few  wheels,  a  few  levers,  a  few 
cranks,  broken  and  eaten  with  rust 
Twenty  years  ago  that  was  the  pride  of 
the  city.  Men  flocked  in  from  the  country 
to  see  the  great  invention;  now  it  is  su- 
perseded, its  day  is  done.  And  all  the 
boasted  science  and  philosophy  of  this  day 
will  soon  be  old.  But  yesterday,  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  the  greatest  fig- 
ure in  the  faculty  was  Sir  James  Simpson, 
the  discoverer  of  chloroform.     The  other 


64  THE  GREATEST  THING 

day  his  successor  and  nephew,  Professor 
Simpson,  was  asked  by  the  librarian  of 
the  University  to  go  to  the  library  and 
pick  out  the  books  on  his  subject  that 
were  no  longer  needed.  And  his  reply 
to  the  librarian  was  this:  ''Take  every 
text-book  that  is  more  than  ten  years  old, 
and  put  it  down  in  the  cellar.*'  Sir 
James  Simpson  was  a  great  authority  only 
a  few  years  ago:  men  came  from  all  parts 
of  the  earth  to  consult  him;  and  almost 
the  whole  teaching  of  that  time  is  con- 
signed by  the  science  of  to-day  to  oblivion. 
And  in  every  branch  of  science  it  is  the 
same.  *'  Now  we  know  in  part.  We  see 
through  a  glass  darkly.'* 

Can  you  tell  me  anything  that  is  going 
to  last?  Many  things  Paul  did  not  con- 
descend to  name.     He  did  not  mention 


IN  THE  WORLD.  65 

money,  fortune,  fame;  but  lie  picked  out 
the  great  things  of  his  time,  the  things 
the  best  men  thought  had  something  in 
them,  and  brushed  them  peremptorily 
aside.  Paul  had  no  charge  against  these 
thinors  in  themselves.  All  he  said  about 
them  was  that  they  would  not  last.  They 
were  great  things,  but  not  supreme  things. 
There  were  things  beyond  them.  What 
we  are  stretches  past  what  we  do,  beyond 
what  we  possess.  Many  things  that  men 
denounce  as  sins  are  not  sins;  but  they 
are  temporar>\  And  that  is  a  favorite 
argument  of  the  New  Testament.  John 
says  of  the  world,  not  that  it  is  wrong, 
but  simply  that  it  **  passeth  away.*^ 
There  is  a  great  deal  in  the  world  that  is 
delightful  and  beautiful;  there  is  a  greav 
deal  in  it  that  is  great  and  engrossing" 


66  THK  GREATEST  THING 

but  it  will  not  last.  All  tliat  is  in  the 
world,  tlie  lust  of  tlie  eye,  the  lust  of  the 
Sesh,  and  the  pride  of  life,  are  but  for  a 
little  while.  Love  not  the  world  there- 
fore. Nothing  that  it  contains  is  worth 
the  life  and  consecration  of  an  immortal 
soul.  The  immortal  soul  must  give  itself 
to  something  that  is  immortal.  And  the 
only  immortal  things  are  these:  "Now 
abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  but  the  greatest 
of  these  is  love.'' 

Some  think  the  time  may  come  when  two 
of  these  three  things  will  also  pass  away— 
faith  into  sight,  hope  into  fruition.  Paul 
does  not  say  so.  We  know  but  little  now 
about  the  conditions  of  the  life  that  is  to 
come.  But  what  is  certain  is  that  Love 
must  last.  God,  the  Eternal  God,  is 
Love.      Covet  therefore  that  everlasting 


IN  THE  WORLD.  67 

gift,  that  oue  thing  which  it  is  certain  is 
going  to  stand,  that  one  coinage  which 
will  be  current  in  the  Universe  when  all 
the  other  coinages  of  all  the  nations  of  the 
world  shall  be  useless  and  unhonored. 
You  will  give  yourselves  to  many  things, 
give  yourself  first  to  L^ove.  Hold  things 
in  their  proportion.  Hold  things  in  their 
proportion,  Let  at  least  the  first  great 
object  of  our  lives  be  to  achieve  the  cha- 
racter defended  in  these  words,  the  cha- 
racter— and  it  is  the  character  of  Christ 
— which  is  built  round  Love. 

I  have  said  this  thing  is  eternal.  Did 
you  ever  notice  how  continually  John 
associates  love  and  faith  with  eternal  life? 
I  was  not  told  when  I  was  a  boy  that 
"God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave 
His  only-begotten   Son,    that    whosoever 


68  THE  GREATEST  THING 


believetli  in  Him  should  have  everlasting 
life."  What  I  was  told,  I  remember,  was, 
that  God  so  loved  the  world  that,  if  I 
trusted  in  Him,  I  was  to  have  a  thing 
called  peace,  or  I  was  to  have  rest,  or  I 
was  to  have  joy,  or  I  was  to  have  safety. 
But  I  had  to  find  out  for  myself  that  who- 
soever trusteth  in  Him — that  is,  whoso- 
ever loveth  Him,  for  trust  is  only  the 
avenue  to  Love — hath  everlasting  life. 
The  Gospel  offers  a  man  life.  Never  offer 
men  a  thimbleful  of  Gospel.  Do  not 
offer  them  merely  joy,  or  merely  peace,  or 
merely  rest,  or  merely  safety ;  tell  them 
how  Christ  came  to  give  men  a  more 
abundant  life  than  they  have,  a  life  abun- 
dant in  love,  and  therefore  abundant  in 
salvation  for  themselves,  and  large  in  en- 
terprise for  the  alleviation  and  redemption 


IN  THE  WORI^D.  69 

of  the  world.  Then  only  can  the  Gospel 
take  hold  of  the  whole  of  a  man,  body, 
soul,  and  spirit,  and  give  to  each  part  of 
his  nature  its  exercise  and  reward.  Many 
of  the  current  Gospels  are  addressed  only 
to  a  part  of  man's  nature.  They  offer 
peace,  not  life;  faith,  not  Love;  justifica- 
tion, not  regeneration.  And  men  slip 
back  again  from  such  religion  because  it 
has  never  really  held  them.  Their  na- 
ture was  not  all  in  it.  It  offered  no  deep- 
er and  gladder  life-current  than  the  life 
that  was  lived  before.  Surely  it  stands 
to  reason  that  only  a  fuller  love  can  com- 
pete with  the  love  of  the  world. 

To  love  abundantly  is  to  live  abun- 
dantly, and  to  love  for  ever  is  to  live  for 
ever.  Hence,  eternal  life  is  inextricably 
bound  up  with  love.     We  want   to  live 


70  THK  GREATEST  THING 

for  ever  for  the  same  reason  tliat  we  want 
to  live  to-morrow.  Wli}^  do  you  want  to 
live  to-morrow?  It  is  because  there  is 
some  one  who  loves  you,  and  whom  you 
want  to  see  to-morrow,  and  be  with,  and 
love  back.  There  is  no  other  reason  why 
we  should  live  on  than  that  we  love  and 
are  beloved.  It  is  when  a  man  has  no 
one  to  love  him  that  he  commits  suicide. 
So  long  as  he  has  friends,  those  who  love 
him  and  whom  he  loves,  he  will  live,  be- 
cause to  live  is  to  love.  Be  it  but  the 
love  of  a  dog,  it  will  keep  him  in  life; 
but  let  that  go  and  he  has  no  contact  with 
life,  no  reason  to  live.  He  dies  by  his 
own  hand.  Eternal  life  also  is  to  know 
God,  and  God  is  love.  This  is  Christ's 
own  definition.  Ponder  it.  *'This  is 
life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee 


IN  THE  WORLD.  71 

the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom 
Thou  hast  sent. '  *  I^ove  must  be  eternal.  It 
is  what  God  is.  On  the  last  analysis,  then, 
love  is  life.  Love  never  faileth,  and  life 
never  faileth,  so  long  as  there  is  love.  That 
is  the  philosophy  of  what  Paul  is  showing  - 
us;  the  reason  why  in  the  nature  of  things 
Love  should  be  the  supreme  thing — because 
it  is  going  to  last;  because  in  the  nature 
of  things  it  is  an  Eternal  Life.  It  is  a 
thing  that  we  are  living  now,  not  that  we 
get  when  we  die;  that  we  shall  have  a 
poor  chance  of  getting  when  we  die  un- 
less we  are  living  now.  No  worse  fate 
can  befall  a  man  in  this  world  than  to 
live  and  grow  old  alone,  unloving,  and 
unloved.  To  be  lost  is  to  live  in  an  un- 
regenerate  condition,  loveless  and  un- 
loved; and  to  be  saved  is  to  love;  and  he 


72  THE  GREATEST  THING 

that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelletli  already  in 
God.    For  God  is  I^ove. 

Now  I  have  all  but  finished.  How 
many  of  you  will  join  me  in  reading 
this  chapter  once  a  week  for  the  next 
three  months?  A  man  did  that  once 
and  it  changed  his  whole  life.  Will  you 
do  it  ?  It  is  for  the  greatest  thing  in  the 
world.  You  might  begin  by  reading  it 
every  day,  especially  the  verses  which 
describe  the  perfect  character.  *'Love 
suffereth  long,  and  is  kind ;  love  envieth 
not;  love  vaunteth  not  itself."  Get 
these  ingredients  into  your  life.  Then 
everything  that  you  do  is  eternal.  It  is 
worth  doing.  It  is  worth  giving  time 
to.  No  man  can  become  a  saint  in  his 
sleep ;  and  to  fulfil  the  condition  required 
demands  a  certain  amount  of  prayer  and 


IN  THE  WORLD.  73 

meditation  and  time,  just  as  improvement 
in  any  direction,  bodily  or  mental,  re- 
quires preparation  and  care.  A4dress 
yourselves  to  that  one  thing;  at  any 
cost  have  this  transcendent  character 
exchanged  for  yours.  You  will  find  as 
you  look  back  upon  your  life  that  the 
moments  that  stand  out,  the  moments 
when  you  have  really  lived,  are  the 
moments  when  you  have  done  things 
in  a  spirit  of  love.  As  memory  scans 
the  past,  above  and  beyond  all  the  tran- 
sitory pleasures  of  life,  there  leap  for- 
ward those  supreme  hours  when  you 
have  been  enabled  to  do  unnoticed  kind- 
nesses to  those  round  about  you,  things 
too  trifling  to  speak  about,  but  which 
you  feel  have  entered  into  your  eternal 
life,     I  have  seen  almost  all  the  beauti- 


74  ^HE  GREATEIST  THING 

fill  things  God  has  made ;  I  have  enjoyed 
almost  every  pleasure  that  He  has  planned 
for  man ;  and  yet  as  I  look  back  I  see 
standing  out  above  all  the  life  that  has 
gone  four  or  five  short  experiences  when 
the  love  of  God  reflected  itself  in  some 
poor  imitation,  some  small  act  of  love 
of  mine,  and  these  seem  to  be  th.e 
things  which  alone  of  all  one's  life 
abide.  Everything  else  in  all  our  lives 
is  transitory.  Every  other  good  is  vision- 
ary. But  the  acts  of  love  which  no  man 
knows  about,  or  can  ever  know  about — 
they  never  fail. 

In  the  Book  of  Matthew,  where  the 
Judgment  Day  is  depicted  for  us  in  the 
imager>'  of  One  seated  upon  a  throne 
and  dividing  the  sheep  from  the  goats, 
the  test  of  a  man  then  is  not,  **  How 


IN   THB  WORLD.  75 

have  I  believed?'*  but  **How  bave  I 
loved?'*  The  test  of  religion,  the  final 
test  of  religion,  is  not  religiousness,  but 
Love.  I  say  the  final  test  of  religion  at 
that  great  Day  is  not  religiousness,  but 
Love ;  not  what  I  have  done,  not  what  I 
have  believed,  not  what  I  have  achieved, 
but  how  I  have  discharged  the  common 
charities  of  life.  Sins  of  commission  in 
that  awful  indictment  are  not  even  re- 
ferred to.  By  what  we  have  not  done, 
by  sins  of  omission^  we  are  judged.  It 
Gould  not  be  otherwise.  For  the  with- 
holding of  love  is  the  negation  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  the  proof  that  we  never 
knew  Him,  that  for  us  He  lived  in  vain. 
It  means  that  He  suggested  nothing  in 
all  our  thoughts,  that  He  inspired  noth- 
ing in  all  our  lives,  that  we  were   not 


76  THE  GREATEST  THING 

once  near  enougli  to  Him  to  be  seized 
with  the  spell  of  His  compassion  for  the 
world.     It  means  that— 

"I^  lived  for  myself,  I  thought  for  myself, 
For  myself,  and  none  beside — 
Just  as  if  Jesus  had  never  lived, 
As  if  He  had  never  died." 

It  is  the  Son  of  Man  before  whom  the 
nations  of  the  world  shall  be  gathered. 
It  is  in  the  presence  of  Humanity  that 
we  shall  be  charged.  And  the  spectacle 
itself,  the  mere  sight  of  it,  will  silently 
judge  each  one.  Those  will  be  there 
whom  we  have  met  and  helped ;  or  there, 
the  unpitied  multitude  whom  we  neg- 
lected or  despised.  No  other  Witness 
need  be  summoned.  No  other  charge 
than  lovelessness  shall  be  preferred.     P** 


IN  THE  WORIvD.  77 

not  deceived.  The  words  which  all  of 
us  shall  one  Day  hear  sound  not  of  the- 
ology" but  of  life,  not  of  churches  and 
saints  but  of  the  hungry  and  the  poor, 
not  of  creeds  and  doctrines  but  of  shelter 
and  clothing,  not  of  Bibles  and  prayer- 
books  but  of  cups  of  cold  water  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  Thank  God  the  Chris- 
tianity of  to-day  is  coming  nearer  the 
world's  need.  lyive  to  help  that  on. 
Thank  God  men  know  better,  by  a  hairs- 
breadth,  what  religion  is,  what  God  is, 
vv^ho  Christ  is,  where  Christ  is.  Who 
is  Christ?  He  who  fed  the  hungry, 
clothed  the  naked,  visited  the  sick.  And 
where  is  Christ?  Where? — whoso  shall 
receive  a  little  child  in  My  name  receiv- 
eth  Me.  And  who  are  Christ's  ?  Every 
one  that  loveth  is  bom  of  God. 


PAX  VOBISCUM 


'COMK  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my 
yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me  :  for  I  am  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto 
your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  bur- 
den is  lig-ht." 


PAX    VOBISCUM. 


T  HEARD  the  other  morning  a  set* 
mon  by  a  distinguished  preacher 
upon  **Rest*'  It  was  full  of  beautiful 
thoughts;  but  when  I  came  to  ask  my- 
self, **  How  does  he  say  I  can  get  Rest?'' 
there  was  no  answer.  The  sermon  was 
sincerely  meant  to  be  practical,  yet  it 
contained  no  experience  that  seemed  to 
me  to  be  tangible,  nor  any  advice  which 
could  help  me  to  find  the  thing  itself  as 
I  went  about  the  world  that  afternoon. 


85 


84  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

Yet  this  omission  of  tlie  only  important 
problem  was  not  the  fault  of  the  preacher. 
The  whole  popular  religion  is  in  the  twi- 
light here.  And  when  pressed  for  really- 
working  specifics  for  the  experiences 
with  which  it  deals,  it  falters,  and  seems 
to  lose  itself  in  mist. 

The  want  of  connection  between  the 
great  words  of  religion  and  every-day  life 
has  bewildered  and '  discouraged  all  of  us. 
Christianity  possesses  the  noblest  words 
in  the  language ;  its  literature  overflows 
with  terms  expressive  of  the  greatest  and 
happiest  moods  which  can  fill  the  soul  of 
man.  Rest,  Joy,  Peace,  Faith,  I^ove^ 
Light — these  words  occur  with  such  per- 
sistency in  hymns  and  prayers  that  an 
observer  might  think  they  formed  the 
staple  of  Christian  experience.     But  022 


PEACE  BE  WITH  YOU.  85 

coming  to  close  quarters  with  the  actual 
life  of  most  of  us,  how  surely  would  he 
be  disenchanted  !  I  do  not  think  we  our- 
selves are  aware  how  much  our  religious 
life  is  made  up  of  phrases;  how  much 
of  what  we  call  Christian  experience  is 
only  a  dialect  of  the  Churches,  a  mere  re- 
ligious phraseology  with  almost  nothing 
behind  it  in  what  we  really  feel  and 
know. 

To  some  of  us,  indeed,  the  Christian 
experiences  seem  further  away  than  when 
we  took  the  first  steps  in  the  Christian 
life.  That  life  has  not  opened  out  as  we 
had  hoped;  we  do  not  regret  our  religion, 
but  we  are  disappointed  with  it.  There 
are  times,  perhaps,  when  wandering  notes 
from  a  diviner  music  stray  into  out 
spirits;    but  these  experiences    come  at 


86  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

few  and  fitful  moments.  We  have  no 
sense  of  possession  in  them.  When  they 
visit  us,  it  is  a  surprise.  When  they 
leave  us,  it  is  without  explanation. 
When  we  wish  their  return,  we  do 
not  know  how  to  secure  it. 

All  which  points  to  a  religion  without 
solid  base,  and  a  poor  and  flickering  life. 
It  means  a  great  bankruptcy  in  those 
experiences  which  give  Christianity  its 
personal  solace  and  make  it  attractive 
to  the  world,  and  a  great  uncertainty 
as  to  any  remedy.  It  is  as  if  we  knew 
everj^thing  about  health — except  the  way 
to  get  it. 

I  am  quite  sure  that  the  difficulty  does 
not  lie  in  the  fact  that  men  are  not  in 
earnest.  This  is  simply  not  the  fact. 
All    around    us   Christians    are  wearing 


PEACE  BE  WITH  YOU.  87 

themselves  out  in  trying  to  be  better. 
The  amount  of  spiritual  longing  in  the 
world — in  the  hearts  of  unnumbered 
thousands  of  men  and  women  in  whom 
we  should  never  suspect  it;  among  the 
wise  and  thoughtful;  among  the  young 
and  gay,  who  seldom  assuage  and  never 
betray  their  thirst — this  is  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  and  touching  facts  of  life. 
It  is  not  more  heat  that  is  needed,  but 
more  light;  not  more  force,  but  a  wiser 
direction  to  be  given  to  very  real  energies 
already  there. 

The  Address  which  follows  is  offered  as 
a  humble  contribution  to  this  problem, 
and  in  the  hope  that  it  may  help  some 
who  are  *' seeking  Rest  and  finding 
none''  to  a  firmer  footing  on  one  great, 
solid,    simple   principle  which   underlies 


88  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

not  the  Christian  experiences  alone,  but 
all  experiences,  and  all  life. 

What  Christian  experience  wants  is 
thready  a  vertebral  column,  method.  It 
is  impossible  to  believe  that  there  is  no 
remedy  for  its  unevenness  and  dishevel- 
ment,  or  that  the  remedy  is  a  secret. 
The  idea,  also,  that  some  few  men,  by 
happy  chance  or  happier  temperament, 
have  been  given  the  secret — as  if  there 
were  some  sort  of  knack  or  trick  of  it- 
is  wholly  incredible.  Religion  must 
ripen  its  fruit  for  every  temperament; 
and  the  way  even  into  its  highest  heights 
must  be  by  a  gateway  through  which  the 
peoples  of  the  world  may  pass. 

I  shall  try  to  lead  up  to  this  gateway 
by  a  very  familiar  path.  But  as  that  path 
is  strangely  unfrequented,  and  even  un- 


PEACE  BE  WITH  YOO. 


89 


known,  where  it  passes  into  the  religious 
sphere,  I  must  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the 
commonest  of  commonplaces. 

7 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES. 


XT OTHING  tliat  happens  in  tlie  world 
happens  by  chance.  God  is  a  God  of 
order.  Everything  is  arranged  upon  defi- 
nite principles,  and  never  at  random.  The 
world,  even  the  religious  world,  is  gov- 
erned by  law.  Character  is  governed  by 
law.  Happiness  is  governed  by  law. 
The  Christian  experiences  are  governed 
by  law.  Men^  forgetting  this,  expect 
Rest,  Joy,  Peace,  Faith  to  drop  into  their 
souls  from  the  air  like  snow  or  rain.  But 
in  point  of  fact  they  do  not  do  so;  and  if 
they  did  they  would  no  less  have  their 

00 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  9I 

origin  in  previous  activities  and  be  con- 
trolled by  natural  laws.  Rain  and  snow 
dc  drop  from  the  air,  but  not  without  a 
long  previous  history.  They  are  the  ma- 
ture effects  of  former  causes.  Equally  so 
are  Rest,  and  Peace,  and  Joy.  They,  too, 
have  each  a  previous  history.  Storms 
and  winds  and  calms  are  not  accidents, 
but  are  brought  about  by  antecedent  cir- 
cumstances. Rest  and  Peace  are  but 
calms  in  man^s  inward  nature,  and  arise 
through  causes  as  definite  and  as  inevit- 
able. 

Realize  it  thoroughly:  it  is  a  method- 
ical not  an  accidental  world.  If  a  house- 
wife turns  out  a  good  cake,  it  is  the  result 
of  a  sound  receipt,  carefully  applied.  She 
cannot  mix  the  assigned  ingredients  and 
fire  them  for  the  appropriate  time  without 


92  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

prcMiucing  tlie  result  It  is  not  slie  who 
has  made  the  cake;  it  is  nature.  She 
brings  related  things  together;  sets  causes 
at  work;  these  causes  bring  about  the  re- 
sult. She  is  not  a-  creator,  but  an  inter- 
mediary. She  does  not  expect  random 
causes  to  produce  specific  effects — random 
ingredients  would  only  produce  random 
cakes.  So  it  is  in  the  making  of  Chris- 
tian experiences.  Certain  lines  are  fol- 
lowed; certain  effects  are  the  result. 
These  effects  cannot  but  be  the  result 
But  the  result  can  never  take  place  with- 
out the  previous  cause.  To  expect  results 
without  antecedents  is  to  expect  cakes 
without  ingredients.  That  impossibility 
is  precisely  the  almost  universal  expecta- 
tion. 

Now  what  1  mainly  wish  to  do  is  to 


KFFSCTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  93 

help  you  firmly  to  grasp  this  simple  prin- 
ciple of  Cause  and  Effect  in  the  spiritual 
world.  And  instead  of  applying  the  prin- 
ciple generally  to  each  of  the  Christian 
experiences  in  turn,  I  shall  examine  its 
application  to  one  in  some  little  detail. 
The  one  I  shall  select  is  Rest.  And  I 
think  any  one  who  follows  the  applica- 
tion in  this  single  instance  will  be  able  to 
apply  it  for  himself  to  all  the  others. 

Take  such  a  sentence  as  this:  African 
explorers  are  subject  to  fevers  which  cause 
restlessness  and  delirium.  Note  the  ex- 
pression, ** cause  restlessness.'*  Restless- 
ness has  a  cause.  Clearly,  then,  any  one 
who  wished  to  get  rid  of  restlessness  would 
proceed  at  once  to  deal  with  the  cause. 
If  that  were  not  removed,  a  doctor  might 
prescribe  a  hundred  things,  and  all  might 


94  PAX  VOBISCTDM. 


be  taken  in  turn,  without  producing  tlie 
least  effect.  Things  are  so  arranged  in 
the  original  planning  of  the  world  that 
certain  effects  must  follow  certain  causes, 
and  certain  causes  must  be  abolished  be- 
fore certain  effects  can  be  removed.  Cer- 
tain parts  of  Africa  are  inseparably  linked 
with  the -physical  experience  called  fever; 
this  fever  is  in  turn  infallibly  linked  with 
a  mental  experience  called  restlessness 
and  delirium.  To  abolish  the  mental  ex- 
perience the  radical  method  would  be  to 
abolish  the  physical  experience,  and  the 
way  of  abolishing  the  physical  experience 
would  be  to  abolish  Africa,  or  to  cease  to  go 
there.  Now  this  holds  good  for  all  other 
forms  of  Restlessness.  Every  other  form 
and  kind  of  Restlessness  in  the  world  has 
a  definite  cause,  and  the  particular  kind 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  95 

of  Restlessness  can  only  be  lemoved  by 
removing  the  allotted  cause. 

All  tbis  is  also  true  of  Rest,  Restless- 
ness has  a  cause :  must  not  Rest  have  a 
cause  ?  Necessarily.  If  it  were  a  chance 
world  we  would  not  expect  this;  but, 
being  a  methodical  world,  it  cannot  be 
otherwise.  Rest,  physical  rest,  moral 
rest,  spiritual  rest,  every  kind  of  rest,  has 
a  cause,  as  certainly  as  restlessness.  Now 
causes  are  discriminating.  There  is  one 
.  kind  of  cause  for  every  particular  effect, 
and  no  other;  and  if  one  particular  effect 
is  desiredj  the  corresponding  cause  must 
be  set  in  motion.  It  is  no  use  proposing 
finely  devised  schemes,  or  going  through 
general  pious  exercises  in  the  hope  that 
somehow  Rest  will  come.  The  Christian 
life  is  not  casual,  but  causal.   All  nature  is 


9^  PAX  VOBISCUM. 


a  standing  protest  against  the  absurdity  of 
expecting  to  secure  spiritual  effects,  or  any 
effects,  without  the  employment  of  appro- 
priate causes.  The  Great  Teacher  dealt 
what  ought  to  have  been  the  final  blow 
to  this  infinite  irrelevancy  b}'  a  single 
question,  *'Do  men  gather  grapes  of 
thorns  or  figs  of  thistles?** 

Why,  then,  did  the  Great  Teacher  not 
educate  His  followers  fully?  Why  did 
He  not  tell  us,  for  example,  how  such  a 
thing  as  Rest  might  be  obtained?  The 
answer  is,  that  He  did.  But  plainly,  ex- 
plicitly, in  so  many  words  ?  Yes,  plainly, 
explicitly,  in  so  many  words.  He  as- 
signed Rest  to  its  cause,  in  words  with 
which  each  of  us  has  been  familiar  from 
his  earliest  childhood. 

He  begins,  you  remember — for  you  at 


EFFECTS   REQUIRE  CAUSES.  97 

once  know  the  passage  I  refer  to — almost 
as  if  Rest  could  be  had  without  any 
cause:  **  Come  unto  Me/'  He  says,  **and 
I  will^tve  you  Resf 

Rest,  apparently,  was  a  favor  to  be  be- 
stowed; men  had  but  to  come  to  Him; 
He  would  give  it  to  every  applicant. 
But  the  next  sentence  takes  that  all  back. 
The  qualification,  indeed,  is  added  instan- 
taneously. For  what  the  first  sentence 
seemed  to  give  was  next  thing  to  an  im- 
possibility. For  how,  in  a  literal  sense^ 
can  Rest  be  given  ?  One  could  no  more 
give  away  Rest  than  he  could  give  away 
Laughter.  We  speak  of  **  causing** 
laughter,  which  we  can  do;  but  we  can- 
not give  it  away.  When  we  speak  of 
giving  pain,  we  know  perfectly  well  we 
cannot  give  pain  away.     And  when  we 


98  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

aim  at  giving  pleasure,  all  tliat  we  do  is 
to  arrange  a  set  of  circumstances  in  such 
a  way  as  that  these  shall  cause  pleasure. 
Of  course  there  is  a  sense,  and  a  very 
wonderful  sense,  in  which  a  Great  Per- 
sonality breathes  upon  all  who  come 
within  its  influence  an  abiding  peace  and 
trust.  Men  can  be  to  other  men  as  the 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  thirsty  land. 
Much  more  Christ;  much  more  Christ  as 
Perfect  Man;  much  more  still  as  Saviour 
of  the  world.  But  it  is  not  this  of  which 
I  speak.  When  Christ  said  He  would 
give  men  Rest,  He  meant  simply  that  He 
would  put  them  in  the  way  of  it.  By  no 
act  of  conveyance  would,  or  could.  He 
make  over  His  own  Rest  to  them.  He 
could  give  them  His  receipt  for  it.  That 
was  all.     But  He  would  not  make  it  for 


EFFECTvS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  99 

them ;  for  one  thing,  it  was  not  in  His 
plan  to  make  it  for  them ;  for  another 
thing,  men  were  not  so  planned  that  it 
could  be  made  for  them  ;  and  for  yet  an- 
other thing,  it  was  a  thousand  times  bet- 
ter that  they  should  make  it  for  them- 
selves. 

That  this  is  the  meaning  becomes 
obvious  from  the  wording  of  the  second 
sentence :  * '  Learn  of  Me  and  ye  shall 
find  Rest.'*  Rest,  that  is  to  say,  is  not 
a  thing  that  can  be  given,  but  a  thing  to 
be  acquired.  It  comes  not  by  an  act,  but 
by  a  process.  It  is  not  to  be  found  in  a 
happy  hour,  as  one  finds  a  treasure ;  but 
slowly,  as  one  finds  knowledge.  It  could 
indeed  be  no  more  found  in  a  moment 
than  could  knowledge.  A  soil  has  to  be 
prepared  for  it.     Like  a  fine  fruit,  it  will 


lOO  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

grow  in  one  climate  and  not  in  anotlier ; 
at  one  altitude  and  not  at  another.  I^ike 
all  growths  it  will  have  an  orderly  de- 
velopment and  mature  by  slow  degrees. 
The  nature  of  this  slow  process  Christ 
clearly  defines  when  He  says  we  are  to 
achieve  Rest  by  harning,  ^*  Learn  of 
Me,'*  He  says,  **and  ye  shall  find  rest  to 
your  souls.'*  Now  consider  the  extra- 
ordinary originality  of  this  utterance. 
How  novel  the  connection  between  these 
two  words,  *^ Learn"  and  **Rest"? 
How  few  of  us  have  ever  associated  them 
— ever  thought  that  Rest  was  a  thing  to 
be  learned ;  ever  laid  ourselves  out  for  it 
as  we  would  to  learn  a  language ;  ever 
practised  it  as  we  would  practise  the  vio- 
lin ?  Does  it  not  show  how  entirely  new 
Christ's   teaching  still  is   to   the  world, 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  lOX 

that  SO  old  and  threadbare  an  aphorism 
should  still  be  so  little  applied?  The  last 
thing  most  of  us  would  have  thought  of 
would  have  been  to  associate  Rest  with 

What  must  one  work  at  ?  What  is  that 
which  if  duly  learned  will  find  the  soul 
of  man  in  Rest?  Christ  answers  with- 
out the  least  hesitation.  He  specifies 
two  things — Meekness  and  I^owliness. 
**Ivearn  of  Me/'  He  says,  *'for  I  am 
meek  and  lowly  in  heart.'*  Now,  these 
two  things  are  not  chosen  at  random. 
To  these  accomplishments,  in  a  special 
way,  Rest  is  attached.  I^eam  these,  in 
short,  and  you  have  already  found  Rest 
These  as  they  stand  are  direct  causes  of 
Rest ;  will  produce  it  at  once  ;  cannot  but 
-produce  it  at  once.     And  if  you  think  fot 

TJNIVEPvSITY  0^  ^  -  ^^  M:NI^ 


lOZ  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

a  single  moment,  you  will  see  how  this  is 
necessarily  so,  for  causes  are  never  arbi- 
trary, and  the  connection  between  ante- 
cedent and  consequent  here  and  every- 
where lies  deep  in  the  nature  of  things. 
What  is  the  connection,  then?  I 
answer  by  a  further  question.  What 
are  the  chief  causes  of  Unrest?  If  you 
know  yourself,  you  will  answer  Pride, 
Selfishness,  Ambition.  As  you  look  back 
upon  the  past  years  of  your  life,  is  it  not 
true  that  its  unhappiness  has  chiefly  come 
from  the  succession  of  personal  mortifica- 
tions, and  almost  trivial  disappointments 
which  the  intercourse  of  life  has  brought 
you  ?  Great  trials  come  at  lengthened  in- 
tervals, and  we  rise  to  breast  them  ;  but 
it  is  the  petty  friction  of  our  every-day 
life  with  one  another,  the  jar  of  business  • 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  IO3 

or  of  work,  the  discord  of  tlie  domeetic 
circle,  the  collapse  of  our  ambition,  the 
crossing  of  our  will  or  the  taking  down 
of  our  conceit,  which  make  inward  peace 
impossible.  Wounded  vanity,  then,  dis- 
appointed hopes,  unsatisfied  selfishness — • 
these  are  the  old,  vulgar,  universal  sources 
of  man's  unrest. 

Now  it  is  obvious  why  Christ  pointed 
out  as  the  two  chief  objects  for  attain- 
ment the  exact  opposites  of  these.  To 
Meekness  and  L<owliness  these  things 
simply  do  not  exist.  They  cure  unrest 
by  making  it  impossible.  These  reme- 
dies do  not  trifle  with  surface  symptoms  ; 
they  strike  at  once  at  removing  causes. 
The  ceaseless  chagrin  of  a  self-centred 
life  can  be  removed  at  once  by  learning 
Meekness  and   Lowliness  of  heart.     He 


I04  PAX  VOBISCUM, 


who  learns  them  is  for  ever  proof  agaiiivSt 
it.  He  lives  henceforth  a  charmed  life. 
Christianity  is  a  fine  inoculation,  a  trans- 
fusion of  healthy  blood  into  an  anaemic 
or  poisoned  soiiL  "No  fever  can  attack 
a  perfectly  sound  body ;  no  fever  of  un- 
rest can  disturb  a  soul  which  has  breathed 
the  air  or  learned  the  ways  of  Christ. 
Men  sigh  for  the  wings  of  a  dove  that 
they  may  fly  away  and  be  at  rest.  But 
flying  away  will  not  help  us.  **The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you,'*^  We 
aspire  to  the  top  to  look  for  Rest ;  it  lies 
at  the  bottom.  Water  rests  only  when  it 
gets  to  the  lowest  place.  So  do  men. 
Hence,  be  lowly.  The  man  who  has 
no  opinion  of  himself  at  all  can  never  be 
hurt  if  others  do  not  acknowledge  him. 
Hence,    be  meek.     He  who   is  without 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  105 

expectation  cannot  fret  if  nothing  comes 
to  him.  It  is  self-evident  that  these 
things  are  so.  The  lowly  man  and  the 
meek  man  are  really  above  all  other  men, 
above  all  other  things.  They  dominate 
the  world  because  they  do  not  care  for  it. 
The  miser  does  not  possess  gold,  gold 
possesses  him.  But  the  meek  posses^s  it. 
**The  meek/'  said  Christ,  **  inherit  the 
earth.'*  They  do  not  buy  it;  they  do 
not  conquer  it;  but  they  inherit  it. 

There  are  people  who  go  about  the 
world  looking  out  for  slights,  and  they 
are  necessarily  miserable,  for  they  find 
them  at  every  turn — especially  the  imag- 
inary ones.  One  has  the  same  pity  for 
such  men  as  for  the  very  poor.  They 
are  the  morally  illiterate.  They  have 
had    no    real    education,    for  they  have 


I06  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

never  learned  How  to  live.  Few  men 
kn  ow  how  to  live.  We  grow  up  at  ran- 
dom, carrying  into  mature  life  the  merely 
animal  methods  and  motives  which  we 
had  as  little  children.  And  it  does  not 
occur  to  us  that  all  this  must  be  changed ; 
that  much  of  it  must  be  reversed ;  that 
life  is  the  finest  of  the  Fine  Arts ;  that  it 
has  to  be  learned  with  lifelong  patience, 
and  that  the  years  of  our  pilgrimage  are 
all  too  short  to  master  it  triumphantly. 
Yet  this  is  what  Christianity  is  for — 
to  teach  men  the  Art  of  Life.  And  its 
whole  curriculum  lies  in  one  word — 
"Learn  of  Me.'*  Unlike  most  educa- 
tion, this  is  almost  purely  personal ;  it 
is  not  to  be  had  from  books  or  lectures  or 
creeds  or  doctrines.  It  is  a  study  from 
the  life.     Christ  never  said  much  in  mere 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  IC/ 

words  about  the  Cliristian  Graces.  He 
lived  them.  He  was  them.  Yet  we  do 
not  merely  copy  Him.  We  learn  His 
art  by  living  with  Him,  like  the  old 
apprentices  with  their  masters. 

Now  we  understand  it  all?  Christ^s 
invitation  to  the  weary  and  heavy-laden 
is  a  call  to  begin  life  over  again  upon  a 
new  principle — dipon  His  own  principle. 
** Watch  My  way  of  doing  things/*  He 
says.  **  Follow  Me.  Take  life  as  I  take  it. 
Be  meek  and  lowly  and  you  will  find  Rest. '  * 

I  do  not  say,  remember,  that  the  Chris- 
tian life  to  every  man,  or  to  any  man,  can 
be  a  bed  of  roses.  No  educational  process 
can  be  this.  And  perhaps  if  some  men 
knew  how  much  was  involved  in  the  sim- 
ple *4eam*'  of  Christ,  they  would  not 
enter  His  school  with  so  irresponsible  a 


I08  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

heart.  For  tHere  is  not  only  mucli  to 
learn,  but  mucli  to  unlearn.  Many  men 
never  go  to  this  school  at  all  till  their 
disposition  is  already  half  ruined  and  cha- 
racter has  taken  on  its  fatal  set.  To  learn 
arithmetic  is  difficult  at  fift'' — much  more 
to  learn  Christianity.  To  learn  simply 
what  it  is  to  be  meek  and  lowly,  in  the 
case  of  one  who  has  had  no  lessons  in 
that  in  childhood,  may  cost  him  half  of 
what  he  values  most  on  earth.  Do  we 
realize,  for  instance,  that  the  way  of 
teaching  humility  is  generally  by  humil- 
iation f  There  is  probably  no  other 
school  for  it.  When  a  man  enters  him- 
self as  a  pupil  in  such  a  school  it  means 
a  very  great  thing.  There  is  such  Rest 
there,  but  there  is  also  much  Work. 
I  should  be  wrong,   even  though  my 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  IO9 

theme  is  the  brighter  side,  to  ignore  the 
cross  and  minimize  the  cost.  Only  it 
gires  to  the  cross  a  more  definite  mean- 
ing, and  a  rarer  value,  to  connect  it  thus 
directly  and  causally  with  the  growth  of 
the  inner  life.  Our  platitudes  on  the 
**  benefits  of  affliction  "  are  usually  about 
as  vague  as  our  theories  of  Christian  Ex- 
perience. ** Somehow,**  we  believe  afflic- 
tion does  us  good.  But  it  is  not  a  question 
of  *' Somehow.**  The  result  is  definite, 
calculable,  necessary.  It  is  under  the 
strictest  law  of  cause  and  effect.  The 
first  effect  of  losing  one*s  fortune,  for  in- 
stance, is  humiliation  ;•  and  the  effect  of 
humiliation,  as  we  have  just  seen,  is  to 
make  one  humble ;  and  the  effect  of  be- 
ing humble  is  to  produce  Rest.  It  is  a 
roundabout  way,  apparently,  of  producing 


no  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

Rest ;  but  Nature  generally  works  by  cir- 
cular processes ;  and  it  is  not  certain  that 
there  is  any  other  way  of  becoming  hum- 
ble, or  of  finding  Rest.  If  a  man  could 
make  himself  humble  to  order,  it  might 
simplify  matters,  but  we  do  not  find  that 
this  happens.  Hence  we  must  all  go 
through  the  mill.  Hence  death,  death 
to  the  lower  self,  is  the  nearest  gate  and 
the  quickest  road  to  life. 

Yet  this  is  only  half  the  truth.  Christ*  s 
life  outwardly  was  one  of  the  most  troubled 
lives  that  was  ever  lived:  Tempest  and 
tumult,  tumult  and  tempest,  the  waves 
breaking  over  it  all  the  time  till  the  worn 
body  was  laid  in  the  grave.  But  the  in- 
ner life  was  a  sea  of  glass.  The  great 
calm  was  always  there.  At  any  moment 
you  might  have  gone  to  Him  and  found 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  Ill 

Rest.  And  even  when  tlie  blood-liounds 
were  dogging  him  in  the  streets  of  Jeru- 
salem, He  turned  to  His  disciples  and 
offered  them,  as  a  last  legacy,  **My 
peace.**  Nothing  ever  for  a  moment 
broke  the  serenity  of  Christ's  life  on 
earth.  Misfortune  could  not  reach  Him ; 
He  had  no  fortune.  Food,  raiment, 
money — fountain-heads  of  half  the  world's 
weariness — He  simply  did  not  care  for; 
they  played  no  part  in  His  life ;  He  **took 
no  thought"  for  them.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  affect  Him  by  lowering  His  repu- 
tation. He  had  already  made  himself  of 
no  reputation.  He  was  dumb  before  in- 
sult. When  He  was  reviled  He  reviled 
not  again.  In  fact,  there  was  nothing 
that  the  world  could  do  to  Him  that  could 
ruffle  the  surface  of  His  spirit. 


Iia  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

Sucli  living,  as  merely  living,  is  alto 
gether  unique.  It  is  only  when  we  see 
what  it  was  in  Him  that  we  can  know 
what  the  word  Rest  means.  It  lies  not 
in  emotions,  nor  in  the  absence  of  emo- 
tions. It  is  not  a  hallowed  feeling  that 
comes  over  us  in  church.  It  is  not  some- 
thing that  the  preacher  has  in  his  voice. 
It  is  not  in  nature,  or  in  poetry,  or 
in  music — though  in  all  these  there 
is  soothing.  It  is  the  mind  at  leisure 
from  itself.  It  is  the  perfect  poise  of  the 
soul;  the  absolute  adjustment  of  the  in- 
ward man  to  the  stress  of  all  outward 
things-;  the  preparedness  against  every 
emergency ;  the  stability  of  assured  con- 
victions; the  eternal  calm  of  an  invulner- 
able faith;  the  repose  of  a  heart  set  deep 
in  God.     It  is  the  mood  of  the  man  who 


EFFECTS  REQUIRE  CAUSES.  II3 

says,  with  Browning,  **  God's  in  His 
Heaven,  all's  well  with  the  world.'' 

Two  painters  each  painted  a  picture  to 
illustrate  his  conception  of  rest.  The 
first  chose  for  his  scene  a  still,  lone  lake 
among  the  far-ofif  mountains.  The  second 
threw  on  his  canvas  a  thundering  water- 
fall, with  a  fragile  birch  tree  bending  over 
the  foam;  at  the  fork  of  a  branch,  almost 
wet  with  the  cataract's  spray,  a  robin  sat 
on  its  nest.  The  first  was  only  Stagna- 
tion; the  last  was  Rest,  For  in  Rest 
there  are  always  two  elements — tranquil- 
lity and  energy ;  silence  and  turbulence ; 
creation  and  destruction;  fearlessness  and 
fearfulness.     This  it  was  in  Christ. 

It  is  quite  plain  from  all  this  that  what- 
ever else  He  claimed  to  be  or  to  do.  He 
at  least  knew  how  to  live.     All  this  is  the 


114  PAX  VOBISCUM, 

perfection  of  living,  of  living  in  tlie  mere 
sense  of  passing  through  the  world  in  the 
best  way.  Hence  His  anxiety  to  commu- 
nicate His  idea  of  liffe  to  others.  He 
came,  He  said,  to  give  men  life,  true  life, 
a  more  abundant  life  than  they  were  liv- 
ing; **the  life,*'  as  the  fine  phrase  in  the 
Revised  Version  has  it,  **that  is  life  in- 
deed. ' '  This  is  what  He  himself  possessed, 
and  it  was  this  which  He  offers  to  all  man- 
kind. And  hence  His  direct  appeal  for  all 
to  come  to  Him  who  had  not  made  much 
of  life,  who  were  weary  and  heavy  laden. 
These  he  would  teach  His  secret.  They, 
also,  should  know  **the  life  that  is  life 
Indeed.'' 


WHAT  YOKES  ARE  FOR. 


THBRK  is  still  one  doubt  to  clear  up. 
After  tlie  statement,  ^%eam  of 
Me,"  Christ  throws  in  the  disconcerting 
qualification,  **  Take  My  yoke  upon  you 
and  learn  of  Me.**  Why,  if  all  this  be  true, 
does  He  call  it  a  yoke  f  Why,  while  pro- 
fessing to  give  Rest,  does  He  with  the 
next  breath  whisper  ^'' burden'''^ f  Is  the 
Christian  life,  after  all,  what  its  enemies 
take  it  for — an  additional  weight  to  the 
already  great  woe  of  life,  some  extra 
punctiliousness  about  duty,  some  painful 

devotion  to  obsen^ances,  some  heavy  re- 
us 


Il6  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

striction  and  trammelling  of  all  tliat  is 
joyous  and  free  in  the  world  ?  Is  life  not 
hard  and  sorrowful  enough  without  being 
fettered  with  yet  another  yoke? 

It  is  astounding  how  so  glaring  a  mis- 
understanding of  this  plain  sentence 
should  ever  have  passed  into  currency. 
Did  you  ever  stop  to  ask  what  a  yoke  is 
really  for?  Is  it  to  be  a  burden  to  the 
animal  which  wears  it?  It  is  just  the 
opposite.  It  is  to  make  its  burden  light. 
Attached  to  the  oxen  in  any  other  way 
than  by  a  yoke,  the  plough  would  be 
intolerable.  Worked  by  means  of  a  yoke, 
it  is  light.  A  yoke  is  not  an  instrument 
of  torture ;  it  is  an  instrument  of  mercy. 
It  is  not  a  malicious  contrivance  for  mak- 
ing work  hard ;  it  is  a  gentle  device  to 
make  hard  labor  light.     It  is  not  meant 


WHAT  YOKES  ARE  FOR.  II7 

to  give  pain,  but  to  save  pain.  And  yet 
men  speak  of  the  yoke  of  Christ  as  if  it 
were  a  slavery,  and  look  upon  those  who 
wear  it  as  objects  of  compassion.  For 
generations  we  have  had  homilies  on 
"The  Yoke  of  Christ,"  some  delighting 
in  portraying  its  narrow  exactions ;  some 
seeking  in  these  exactions  the  marks  of 
its  divinity ;  others  apologizing  for  it, 
and  toning  it  down ;  still  others  assuring 
us  that,  although  it  be  very  bad,  it  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  the  positive  blessings 
of  Christianity.  How  many,  especially 
among  the  young,  has  this  one  mistaken 
phrase  driven  for  ever  away  from  the 
kingdom  of  God?  Instead  of  making 
Christ  attractive,  it  makes  Him  out  a 
taskmaster,  narrowing  life  by  petty  re- 
strictions,  calling    for  self-denial  where 


Il8  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

none  is  necessary,  making  misery  a  vir- 
tue under  the  plea  that  it  is  the  yoke  of 
Christ,  and  happiness  criminal  because  it 
now  and  then  evades  it.  According  to 
this  conception,  Christians  are  at  best  the 
victims  of  a  depressing  fate ;  their  life  is 
a  penance;  and  their  hope  for  the  next 
world  purchased  by  a  slow  martyrdom  in 
this. 

The  mistake  has  arisen  from  taking  the 
word  ^*yoke*'  here  in  the  same  sense  as 
in  the  expressions  *  *  under  the  yoke,  *  *  or 
**wear  the  yoke  in  his  youth.'*  But  in 
Christ's  illustration  it  is  not  the  jugum 
of  the  Roman  soldier,  but  the  simple 
** harness"  or  "ox-collar"  of  the  East- 
ern peasant.  It  is  the  literal  wooden 
yoke  which  He,  with  His  own  hands  in 
the   carpenter  shop,   had  probably  often 


WHAT  YOKES  ARE  FOR.  II9 

made.  He  knew  the  difference  between 
a  smootli  yoke  and  a  rougk  one,  a  bad  fit 
and  a  good  fit ;  the  difference  also  it  made 
to  the  patient  animal  wbicb  had  to  wear 
it.  The  rough  yoke  galled,  and  the  bur- 
den was  heavy ;  the  smooth  yoke  caused 
no  pain,  and  the  load  was  lightly  drawn. 
The  badly-fitted  harness  was  a  misery; 
the  well-fitted  collar  was  **easy.*' 

And  what  was  the  ** burden"?  It  was 
not  some  special  burden  laid  upon  the 
Christian,  some  unique  infliction  that  they 
alone  must  bear.  It  was  what  all  men' 
bear.  It  was  simply  life,  human  life 
itself,  the  general  burden  of  life  which 
all  must  carry  with  them  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave.  Christ  saw  that  men  took 
life  painfully.  To  some  it  was  a  weari- 
ness, to  others  a  failure,  to  many  a  trag- 


120  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

edy,  to  all  a  struggle  and  a  pain.  How 
to  carry  this  burden  of  life  liad  been  tbe 
whole  world's  problem.  It  is  still  the 
whole  world's  problem.  And  here  is 
Christ's  solution :  **  Carry  it  as  I  do. 
Take  life  as  I  take  it.  I^ook  at  it  from 
My  point  of  view.  Interpret  it  upon  My 
principles.  Take  My  yoke  and  learn  of 
Me,  and  you  will  find  it  easy.  For  My 
yoke  is  easy,  works  easily,  sits  right  upon 
the  shoulders,  and  therefore  My  burden  is 
light.'* 

There  is  no  suggestion  here  that  re- 
ligion will  absolve  any  man  from  bearing 
burdens.  That  would  be  to  absolve  him 
from  living,  since  it  is  life  itself  that  is 
the  burden.  What  Christianity  does  pro- 
pose is  to  make  it  tolerable.  Christ's 
yoke  is  simply  His  secret  for  the  allevia- 


WHAT  YOKES  ARK  FOR.  121 

tion  of  human  life,  His  prescription  for 
the  best  and  happiest  method  of  living. 
Men  harness  themselves  to  the  work  and 
stress  of  the  world  in  clumsy  and  un- 
natural ways.  The  harness  they  put  on 
is  antiquated.  A  rough,  ill-fitted  collar 
at  the  best,  they  make  its  strain  and 
friction  past  enduring,  by  placing  it 
where  the  neck  is  most  sensitive;  and 
by  mere  continuous  irritation  this  sensi- 
tiveness increases  until  the  whole  nature 
is  quick  and  sore. 

This  is  the  origin,  among  other  things, 
of  a  disease  called  **  touchiness^' — a  dis- 
ease which,  in  spite  of  its  innocent  name, 
IS  one  of  the  gravest  sources  of  restless- 
ness in  the  world.  Touchiness,  when  it 
becomes   chronic,  is  a  morbid  condition 

ot  the  inward  disposition.     It  is  self-love 

9 


T22  PAX  VOBISCUM, 

inflamed  to  the  acute  point;  conceit, 
with  a  hair-trigger.  The  cure  is  to  shift 
the  5'oke  to  some  other  place ;  to  let  men 
and  things  touch  us  through  some  new 
and  perhaps  as  yet  unused  part  of  our 
nature ;  to  become  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart  while  the  old  nature  is  becoming 
numb  from  want  of  use.  It  is  the  beau- 
tiful work  of  Christianity  everywhere  to 
adjust  the  burden  of  life  to  those  who 
bear  it,  and  them  to  it.  It  has  a  per- 
fectly miraculous  gift  of  healing.  With 
out  doing  any  violence  to  human  nature 
it  sets  it  right  with  life,  harmonizing  it 
with  all  surrounding  things,  and  restor- 
ing those  who  are  jaded  with  the  fatigue 
and  dust  of  the  world  to  a  new  grace 
of  living.  In  the  mere  matter  of  alter- 
ing the  perspective  of  life  and  changing 


WHAT  YOKES  ARE   FOR.  1 23 

the  proportion  of  things,  its  function  in 
lightening  the  care  of  man  is  altogether 
its  own.  The  weight  of  a  load  depends 
upon  the  attraction  of  the  earth.  But 
suppose  the  attraction  of  the  earth  were 
removed?  A  ton  on  some  other  planet, 
where  the  attraction  of  gravity  is  less, 
does  not  weigh  half  a  ton.  Now  Chris- 
tianity removes  the  attraction  of  the 
earth,  and  this  is  one  way  in  which  it 
diminishes  men's  burden.  It  makes 
them  citizens  of  another  world.  What 
was  a  ton  yesterday  is  not  half  a  ton 
to-day.  So  without  changing  one^s  cir- 
cumstances, merely  by  offering  a  widei 
horizon  and  a  different  standard^  it  alters 
the  whole  aspect  of  the  world. 

Christianity  as    Christ    taught    is  the 
truest    philosophy  of   life  ever    spoken. 


124  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

But  let  us  be  quite  sure  wlien  we  speak 
of  Christianity  that  we  mean  Christ* s 
Christianity.  Other  versions  are  either 
caricatures,  or  exaggerations,  or  misun- 
derstandings, or  shortsighted  and  surface 
readings.  For  the  most  part  their  at- 
tainment is  hopeless  and  the  results 
wretched.  But  I  care  not  who  the  per 
son  is,  or  through  what  vale  of  tears  he 
has  passed,  or  is  about  to  pass,  there  is 
a  new  life  for  him  along  this  path. 


HOW  FRUITS  GROW 


'^"^7  ERE  Rest  my  subject,  there  are 
other  things  I  should  wish  to  say 
about  it,  and  other  kinds  of  Rest  of  which 
I  should  like  to  speak.  But  that  is  not 
my  subject.  My  theme  is  that  the  Chris- 
tian experiences  are  not  the  work  of 
magic,  but  come  under  the  law  of  Cause 
and  Effect.  And  I  have  chosen  Rest  only 
as  a  single  illustration  of  the  working  of 
that  principle.  If  there  were  time  1 
might  next  run  over  all  the  Christian 
experiences  in  turn,  and  show  how  the 
same  wide  law  applies  to  each.     But  I 

155 


£26  PAX   VOBISCTJM. 

think  it  may  serve  the  better  purpose  if  I 
leave  this  further  exercise  to  yourselves. 
I  know  no  Bible  study  that  you  will  find 
more  full  of  fruit,  or  which  will  take  you 
nearer  to  the  ways  of  God,  or  make  the 
Christian  life  itself  more  solid  or  more 
sure.  I  shall  add  only  a  single  other 
illustration  of  what  I  mean,  before  I 
clase. 

Where  does  Joy  come  from  ?  I  knew  a 
Sunday  scholar  whose  conception  of  Joy 
was  that  it  was  a  thin^^  made  in  lumps 
and  kept  somewhere  in  Heaven,  and  that 
when  people  prayed  for  it,  pieces  were 
somehow  let  down  and  fitted  into  their 
souls.  I  am  not  sure  that  views  as  gross 
and  material  are  not  often  held  by  people 
who  ought  to  be  wiser.  In  reality,  Joy  is 
as  much  a  matter  of  Cause  and  Effect  as 


HOW   FRUITS  GROW.  1 27 

pain.  No  oue  can  get  Joy  by  merely  ask- 
ing for  it.  It  is  one  of  the  ripest  fruits 
of  the  Christian  life,  and,  like  all  fruits, 
must  be  grown.  There  is  a  very  clever 
tri^k  in  India  called  the  mango-trick.  A 
seed  is  put  in  the  ground  and  covered  up, 
and  after  divers  incantations  a  full-blown 
mango-bush  appears  within  five  minutes. 
I  never  met  any  one  who  knew  how  the 
thing  was  done,  but  I  never  met  any  one 
who  believed  it  to  be  anything  else  than 
a  conjuring-triok.  The  world  is  pretty 
unanimous  now  in  its  belief  in  the  order- 
liness of  Nature.  Men  may  not  know 
how  fruits  grow,  but  they  do  know  that 
they  cannot  grow  in  five  minutes.  Some 
lives  have  not  even  a  stalk  on  which  fruits 
could  hang,  even  if  they  did  grow  in  five 
minutes.     Some   have  never  planted  one 


128  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

sound  seed  of  Joy  in  all  their  lives :  and 
others  who  may  have  planted  a  germ  or 
two  have  lived  so  little  in  sunshine  that 
they  never  could  come  to  maturity. 

Whence,  then,  is  joy  ?  Christ  put  His 
teaching  upon  this  subject  into  one  of  the 
most  exquisite  of  His  parables.  I  should 
in  any  instance  have  appealed  to  His 
teaching  here,  as  in  the  case  of  Rest, 
for  I  do  not  wish  you  to  think  I  am 
speaking  words  of  my  own.  But  it  so 
happens  that  He  has  dealt  with  it  in 
words  of  unusual  fulness. 

I  need  not  recall  the  whole  illustration. 
It  is  the  parable  of  the  Vine.  Did  you 
ever  think  why  Christ  spoke  that  parable? 
He  did  not  merely  throw  it  into  space  as 
a  fine  illustration  of  general  truths.  It 
was  not  simply  a  statement  of  the  mystical 


HOW   FRUITS  GROW,  129 

union,  and  the  doctrine  of  an  indwelling 
Christ  It  was  that;  but  it  was  more. 
After  He  had  said  it,  He  did  what  was 
not  an  unusual  thing  when  he  was  teach- 
ing His  greatest  lessons.  He  turned  to 
the  disciples  and  said  He  would  tell  them 
why  He  had  spoken  it.  It  was  to  tell 
them  how  to  get  Joy.  **  These  things 
have  I  spoken  unto  you,"  He  said,  **  that 
My  Joy  might  remain  in  you  and  that 
your  Joy  might  be  full."  It  was  a  pur- 
posed and  deliberate  communication  of 
His  secret  of  Happiness. 

Go  back  over  these  verses,  then,  and 
you  will  find  the  Causes  of  this  Effect, 
the  spring,  and  the  only  spring,  out  of 
which  true  Happiness  comes.  I  am  not 
going  to  analyze  them  in  detail.  I  ask 
you   to  enter  into   the  words  for  your- 


130  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

selves.  Remember,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  Vine  was  the  Eastern  symbol 
of  Joy.  It  was  its  fruit  that  made  glad 
the  heart  of  man.  Yet,  however  inno- 
cent that  gladness — for  the  expressed 
juice  of  the  grape  was  the  common 
drink  at  every  peasant's  board — the  glad- 
ness was  only  a  gross  and  passing  thing. 
This  was  not  true  happiness,  and  the 
vine  of  the  Palestine  vineyards  was  not 
the  true  vine.  ChHst  was  ^*  the  true 
Vine.'*  Here,  then,  is  the  ultimate 
source  of  Joy.  Through  whatever  me- 
dia it  reaches  us,  all  true  Joy  and  Glad- 
ness find  their  source  in  Christ.  By 
this,  of  course,  is  not  meant  that  the 
actual  Joy  experienced  is  transferred 
from  Christ's  nature,  or  is  something 
passed  on   from   Him    to   us.      What  is 


HOW   FRUITS  GROW.  131 

passed  on  is  His  method  of  getting  it 
There  is,  indeed,  a  sense  in  which  we 
can  share  another's  joy  or  another's  sor- 
row. But  that  is  another  matter.  Christ 
is  the  source  of  Joy  to  men  in  the  sense 
in  which  He  is  the  source  of  Rest.  His 
people  share  His  life,  and  therefore  share 
its  consequences,  and  one  of  these  is  Joy. 
His  method  of  living  is  one  that  in  the 
nature  of  things  produces  Joy.  When 
He  spoke  of  His  Joy  remaining  with  us. 
He  meant  in  part  that  the  causes  which 
produced  it  should  continue  to  act.  His 
followers,  that  is  to  say,  by  repeating 
His  life  would  experience  its  accompani- 
ments. His  Joy,  His  kind  of  Joy,  would 
remain  with  them. 

The  medium   through  which  this  Joy 
comes    is    next    explained:     **He    that 


132  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

abideth  in  Me,  the  same  bringeth  fortb 
mucb  fruit.'*  Fruit  first,  Joy  next;  the 
one  the  cause  or  medium  of  the  other. 
Fruit-bearing  is  the  necessary  antece- 
dent ;  Joy  both  the  necessary  consequent 
and  the  necessary  accompaniment.  It 
lay  partly  in  the  bearing  fruit,  partly 
in  the  fellowship  which  made  that  possi- 
ble. Partly,  that  is  to  say,  Joy  lay  in 
mere  constant  living  in  Christ's  pres- 
ence, with  all  that  that  implied  of 
peace,  of  shelter,  and  of  love ;  partly  in 
the  influence  of  that  I^ife  upon  mind 
and  character  and  will ;  and  partl}^  in 
the  inspiration  to  live  and  work  for 
others,  with  all  that  that  brings  of  self- 
riddance  and  Joy  in  others*  gain.  All 
these,  in  different  ways  and  at  different 
times,    are    sources   of   pure   Happiness. 


HOW  FRUITS  GROW.  1 33 

Even  the  simplest  of  them — to  do  good 
to  other  people — is  an  instant  and  in- 
fallible specific.  There  is  no  mystery 
about  Happiness  whatever.  Put  in  the 
right  ingredients  and  it  must  come  out. 
He  that  abideth  in  Him  will  bring  forth 
much  fruit;  and  bringing  forth  much 
fruit  is  Happiness.  The  infallible  re- 
ceipt for  Happiness,  then,  is  to  do  good ; 
and  the  infallible  receipt  for  doing  good 
is  to  abide  in  Christ.  The  surest  proof 
that  all  this  is  a  plain  matter  of  Cause 
and  Eifect  is  that  men  may  try  ever>' 
other  conceivable  way  of  finding  Happi- 
ness, and  they  will  fail.  Only  the  right 
cause  in  each  case  can  produce  the  right 
effect. 

Then    the    Christian    experiences    are 
our  own   making?     In   the   same  sense 


1.34  I*AX  VOBISCUM. 

in  which  grapes  are  our  own  makings 
and  no  more.  All  fruits  ^r^w — ^whether 
they  grow  in  the  soil  or  in  the  soul ; 
whether  they  are  the  fruits  of  the  wild 
grape  or  of  the  True  Vine.  No  man 
can  make  things  grow.  He  can  get 
them  to  grow  by  arranging  all  the  cir- 
cumstances and  fulfilling  all  the  condi- 
tions. But  the  growing  is  done  by  God. 
Causes  and  efifects  are  eternal  arrange- 
ments, set  in  the  constitution  of  the 
world ;  fixed  beyond  man's  ordering. 
What  man  can  do  is  to  place  himselt 
in  the  midst  of  a  chain  of  sequences. 
Thus  he  can  get  things  to  grow :  thus 
he  himself  can  grow.  But  the  grower 
is  the  Spirit  of  God. 

What  more  need  I  add  but  this — test 
the  method  by  experiment.     Do  not  im- 


HOW   FRUITS  GROW.  1 35 

., — . ^ ^ « *. 

agine  that  you  liave  got  these  things  be- 
cause you  know  how  to  get  them.  As 
well  try  to  feed  upon  a  cookery  book. 
But  I  think  I  can  promise  that  if  you 
try  in  this  simple  and  natural  way/  you 
will  not  fail.  Spend  the  time  you  have 
spent  in  sighing  for  fruits  in  fulfilling  the 
conditions  of  their  growth.  The  fruits 
will  come,  must  come.  We  have  hitherto 
paid  immense  attention  to  effects^  to  the 
mere  experiences  themselves ;  we  have 
described  them,  extolled  them,  advised 
them,  prayed  for  them — done  everything 
but  find  out  what  caused  them.  Hence- 
forth let  us  deal  with  causes.  **  To  be,** 
says  Lotze,  **  is  to  be  in  relations.  * '  About 
every  other  method  of  living  the  Christran 
life  there  is  an  uncertainty.  About  every 
other  method  of  acquiring  the  Christian 


136  '  PAX  VOBISCUM. 

experiences  there  is  a  "  perhaps. '  ■  But 
in  so  far  as  this  method  is  the  way  of 
nature,  it  cannot  fail.  Its  giiarantee  is 
the  laws  of  the  universe,  and  these  are 
^'the  Hands  of  the  Living  God.^' 


THE  TRUE  VINE. 

**  I  AM  the  true  vine,  and  my  Father  is 
the  husbandman.  Every  branch  in  me 
that  beareth  not  fruit  he  taketh  away: 
and  every  branch  that  beareth  fruit,  he 
purgeth  it,  that  it  may  bring  forth  more 
fruit.  Now  ye  are  clean  through  the 
word  which  I  have  spoken  unto  you. 
Abide   in   me,    and   I   in   you.*   As  the 


THE  TRUE  VINE.  1 37 

branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself,  except 
it  abide  in  the  vine ;  no  more  can  ye, 
except  ye  abide  in  me.  1  am  the  vine, 
ye  are  the  branches :  he  that  abideth  in 
me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth 
forth  much  fruit :  for  without  me  ye  can 
do  nothing.  If  a  man  abide  not  in  me, 
he  is  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and  is  with- 
ered ;  and  men  gather  them,  and  cast 
them  into  the  fire,  and  they  are  burned. 
If  ye  abide  in  me,  and  my  word  abide  in 
you,  ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will,  and  it 
shall  be  done  unto  you.  Herein  is  my 
Father  glorified,  that  ye  may  bear  much 
fruit;  so  ye  shall -be  my  disciples.  As 
the  Father  hath  loved  me,  so  have  I 
loved  you :  continue  ye  in  my  love.  If 
ye  keep  my  commandments,  ye  shall 
abide  in  my  love ;  even  as  I  have  kept 

10 


138 


PAX   VOBISCUM. 


my  Father*  s  commandments,  and  abide 
in  his  love.  These  things  have  I  spoken 
nnto  you,  that  my  joy  might  remain  in 
you,   and  that  your  joy  might  be  full/' 


THE  CHANGED  LIFE 


We  all 

Witli  unveiled  face 

Reflecting 

As  a  Mirror 

The  Glory  of  the  Lord 

Are  transformed 

Into  the  same  image 

From  Glory  to  Glory 

Even  as  from  the  Lord 

The  Spirit. 


PREFACE. 


T  AST  autumn,  in  a  book-shop  in  Cali- 
fornia, the  author  found  a  little  book 
with  his  name  upon  the  title-page — 
a  book  which  he  did  not  know  existed ; 
which  he  never  wrote  ;  nor  baptized  with 
the  title  which  it  bore.  This  stray  publi- 
cation— taken  from  shorthand  notes  of  a 
spoken  Address — he  does  not  grudge. 
Already,  it  seems,  it  has  done  its  small 
measure  of  good.  But  owing  to  the  im- 
perfections which  it  contains  it  has  been 
thought  right  to  issue  a  more  complete 
edition. 

143 


144  PREFACE. 


The  theme,  like  its  predecessors  in  this 
series,  represents  but  a  single  aspect  of  its 
great  subject — the  man- ward  side.  The 
light  and  shade  is  apportioned  with  this 
in  view.  And  the  reader's  kind  attention 
is  asked  to  this  limitation,  lest  he  wonder 
at  points  being  left  in  shadow  which 
theology  has  always,  and  rightly,  taught 
us  to  emphasize. 

It  was  the  hearing  of  a  simple  talk  by 
a  friend  to  some  plain  people  in  a  High- 
land deer-forest  which  first  called  the 
author's  attention  to  the  practicalness  of 
this  solution  of  the  cardinal  problem  of 
Christian  experience.  What  follows 
owes  a  large  debt  to  that  Sunday 
morning. 


THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 


"  I  PROTEST  that  if  some  great  Power  would 
agree  to  make  me  always  think  what  is  true 
and  do  what  is  right,  on  condition  of  being 
turned  into  a  sort  of  clock  and  wound  up  every 
morning,  I  should  instantly  close  with  the 
offer." 

'"T^HESE  are  the  words  of  Mr.  Huxley. 
The  infinite  desirability,  the  infin- 
ite difficulty  of  being  good — the  theme 
is  as  old  as  humanity.  The  man  does 
not  live  from  whose  deeper  being  the 
same   confession   has   not   risen,   or   who 

1 4?. 


146  THE  CHANGED  I.IFE. 

would  not  give  liis  all  to-morrow,  if  he 
could  ** close  with  the  offer'*  of  becoming 
a  better  man. 

I  propose  to  make  that  offer  now.  It* 
all  seriousness,  without  being  *' turned 
into  a  sort  of  clock,''  the  end  can  be 
attained.  Under  the  right  conditions 
it  is  as  natural  for  character  to  become 
beautiful  as  for  a  flower;  and  if  on  God's 
earth  there  is  not  some  machinery  for 
effecting  it,  the  supreme  gift  to  the  world 
has  been  forgotten.  This  is  simply  what 
man  was  made  for.  With  Browning:  *'l 
say  that  Man  was  made  to  grow,  not 
stop."  Or  in  the  deeper  words  of  an 
older  Book:  ^'Wliom  He  did  foreknow, 
He  also  did  predestinate  ...  to  be  con- 
formed to  the  Image  of  His  Son." 

Let  me  begin  by  naming,  and  in  part 


THE  CHANGED   LIFE.  147 

discarding,  some  processes  in  vogue 
already,  for  producing  better  lives. 
These  processes  are  far  from  wrong ; 
in  their  place  they  may  even  be  essen- 
tial. One  ventures  to  disparage  them 
only  because  they  do  not  turn  out  the 
most  perfect  possible  work. 

The  first  imperfect  method  is  to  rely 
on  Resolution.  In  v/ill-power,  in  mere 
spasms  of  earnestness  there  is  no  salva- 
tion. Struggle,  effort,  even  agony,  have 
their  place  in  Christianity,  as  we  shall 
see;  but  this  is  not  where  they  come  in. 
In  mid-Atlantic  the  other  day,  the  Ktru- 
ria,  in  w^hich  I  was  sailing,  suddenly 
stopped.  Something  had  gone  wrong 
with  the  engines.  There  were  five  hun- 
dred able-bodied  men  on  board  the  ship. 
Do  you  think  that  if  we  had  gathered 


148  THK  CHANGED   LIFK. 

together  and  pushed  against  the  mast 
we  could  have  pushed  it  on  ?  When  one 
attempts  to  sanctify  hiniself  by  effort,  he 
is  trying  to  make  his  be  xt  go  by  pushing 
against  the  mast.  He  is  like  a  drowning 
man  trying  to  lift  himself  out  of  the 
water  by  pulling  at  the  hair  of  his  own 
head.  Christ  held  up  this  method  almost 
to  ridicule  when  He  said,  ^' Which  of  you 
by  taking  thought  can  add  a  cubit  to  his 
stature  ?' '  The  one  redeeming  feature  of 
the  self-sufficient  method  is  this — that 
those  who  try  it  find  out  almost  at  once 
that  it  will  not  gain  the  goal. 

Another  experimenter  sa5^s:  ^*  But  that 
is  not  my  method.  I  have  seen  the  folly 
of  a  mere  wild  struggle  in  the  dark.  I 
work  on  a  principle.  My  plan  is  not  to 
waste  power  on  random  effort,  but  to  con- 


THE  CHANGED  UFK.  I49 

centrate  on  a  single  sin.  By  taking  one 
at  a  time,  and  crucifying  it  steadily,  I 
hope  in  the  end  to  extirpate  all."  To 
this,  unfortunately,  there  are  four  objec- 
tions: For  one  thing,  life  is  too  short;  the 
name  of"  sin  is  lyCgion.  For  another 
thing,  to  deal  with  individual  sins  is  to 
leave  the  rest  of  the  nature  for  the  time 
untouched.  In  the  third  place,  a  single 
combat  with  a  special  sin  does  not  affect 
the  root  and  spring  of  the  disease.  If 
one  only  of  the  channels  of  sin  be  ob- 
structed, experience  points  to  an  almost 
certain  overflow  through  some  other  part 
of  the  nature.  Partial  conversion  is  al- 
most always  accompanied  by  such  moral 
leakage,  for  the  pent-up  energies  accu- 
mulate to  the  bursting  point,  and  the  last 
state  of  that  soul  may  be  worse  than  the 


150  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

first  In  the  last  place,  religion  does  not 
consist  in  negatives,  in  stopping  this  sin 
and  stopping  that.  The  perfect  character 
can  never  be  produced  with  a  pruning- 
knife. 

But  a  third  protests:  ''So  be  it.  I 
make  no  attempt  to  stop  sins  one  by  one. 
My  method  is  just  the  opposite.  I  copy 
the  virtues  one  by  one.'^  The  difficulty 
about  the  copying  method  is  that  it  is  apt 
to  be  mechanical.  One  can  always  tell 
an  engraving  from  a  picture,  an  artificial 
flower  from  a  real  flower.  To  copy  vir- 
tues one  by  one  has  somewhat  the  same 
effect  as  eradicating  the  vices  one  by  one; 
the  temporary  result  is  an  overbalanced 
and  incongruous  character.  Some  one 
defines  a  prig  as  ''a  creature  that  is  over- 
fed   for  its  size.'*     One   sometimes  finds 


THE  CHANGED   LIFE.  I51 

Cliristians  of  this  species — over-fed  on 
one  side  of  their  nature,  but  dismally 
thin  and  starved-looking  on  the  other. 
The  result,  for  instance,  of  copying  Hu- 
mility, and  adding  it  on  to  an  otherwise 
worldly  life,  is  simply  grotesque.  A 
rabid  Temperance  advocate,  for  the  same 
reason,  is  often  the  poorest  of  creatures, 
flourishing  on  a  single  virtue,  and  quite 
oblivious  that  his  Temperance  is  making 
a  worse  man  of  him  and  not  a  better. 
These  are  examples  of  fine  virtues  spoiled 
by  association  with  mean  companions. 
Character  is  a  unity,  and  all  the  virtues 
must  advance  together  to  make  the  per- 
fect man.  This  method  of  sanctificatiou, 
nevertheless,  is  in  the  true  direction.  It 
is  only  in  the  details  of  execution  that  it 
fails. 


152  THE   CHANGED   LIFE. 

A  fourth  method  I  need  scarcely  men- 
tion, for  it  is  a  variation  on  those  already 
named.  It  is  the  very  young  man's 
method ;  and  the  pure  earnestness  of  it 
makes  it  almost  desecration  to  touch  it. 
It  is  to  keep  a  private  note-book  with 
columns  for  the  days  of  the  week,  and  a 
list  of  virtues  with  spaces  against  each 
for  marks.  This,  with  many  stern  rules 
for  preface,  is  stored  away  in'  a  secret 
place,  and  from  time  to  time,  at  night- 
fall, the  soul  is  arraigned  before  it  as  be- 
fore a  private  judgment  bar.  This  living 
by  code  was  Franklin's  method ;  and  I 
suppose  thousands  more  could  tell  how 
they  had  hung  up  in  their  bedrooms,  or 
hid  in  lock-fast  drawers,  the  rules  which 
one  solemn  day  they  drew  up  to  shape 
their  lives.     This   method   is  not  erron- 


THE   CHANGED   LIFE.  1 53 

ecus,  only  somehow  its  success  is  poor. 
You  bear  me  witness  that  it  fails.  And 
it  fails  generally  for  very  matter-of-fact 
reasons — most  likely  because  one  day  we 
forget  the  rules. 

All  these  methods  that  have  been  named 
— the  self-sufficient  method,  the  self-cruci- 
fixion method,  the  mimetic  method,  and 
the  diary  method — are  perfectly  human, 
perfectly  natural,  perfectly  ignorant,  and, 
as  they  stand,  perfectly  inadequate.  It 
is  not  argued,  I  repeat,  that  they  must 
be  abandoned.  Their  harm  is  rather  that 
they  distract  attention  from  the  true  work- 
ing method,  and  secure  a  fair  result  at  the 
expense  of  the  perfect  one.  What  that 
perfect  method  is  we  shall  now  go  on  to 


THE  FORMULA   OF  SANCTI- 
FICATION. 


A  FORMULA,  a  receipt,  for  Sanctifi- 
cation — can  one  seriously  speak  of 
this  mighty  change  as  if  the  process  were 
as  definite  as  for  the  production  of  so 
many  volts  of  electricity?  It  is  impos- 
sible to  doubt  it.  Shall  a  mechanical 
experiment  succeed  infallibly,  and  the 
one  vital  experiment  of  humanity  remain 
a  chance  ?  Is  com  to  grow  by  method, 
and  character  by  caprice?  If  we  cannot 
calculate  to  a  certainty  that  the  forces  of 


FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.      1 55 

religion  will  do  their  work,  then  is  relig- 
ion vain.  And  if  we  cannot  express  the 
law  of  these  forces  in  simple  words,  then 
is  Christianity  not  the  world's  religion, 
but  the  world's  conundrum. 

Where,  then,  shall  one  look  for  such  a 
formula  ?  Where  one  would  look  for  any 
formula — among  the  text-books.  And 
if  we  turn  to  the  text-books  of  Chris- 
tianity we  shall  find  a  formula  for  this 
problem  as  clear  and  precise  as  any  in  the 
mechanical  sciences.  If  this  simple  rule, 
moreover,  be  but  followed  fearlessly,  it 
will  yield  the  result  of  a  perfect  character 
as  surely  as  any  result  that  is  guaranteed 
by  the  laws  of  nature.  The  finest  expres- 
sion of  this  rule  in  Scripture,  or  indeed  in 
any  literature,  is  probably  one  drawn  up 

and  condensed  into  a  single  verse  by  Paul. 
11 


156  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

You  will  find  it  in  a  letter— the  second  to 
the  Corintliians — written  by  him  to  some 
Christian  people  who,  in  a  city  which  was 
a  byword  for  depravity  and  licentiousness, 
were  seeking  the  higher  life.  To  see  the 
point  of  the  words  we  must  take  them 
from  the  immensely  improved  rendering 
of  .the  Revised  translation,  for  the  older 
Version  in  this  case  greatly  obscures  the 
sense.  They  are  these:  '*We  all,  with 
unveiled  face  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  are  transformed  into 
the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even 
as  from  the  Lord  the  Spirit.*' 

Now  observe  at  the  outset  the  entire 
contradiction  of  all  our  previous  efforts, 
in  the  simple  passive  **we  are  trans- 
formed.*' We  are  changed^  as  the  Old  Ver- 
sion has  it — we  do  not  change  ourselves. 


FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.      1 57 

No  man  can  change  himself.  Through- 
out the  New  Testament  you  will  find  that 
wherever  these  moral  and  spiritual  trans- 
formations are  described  the  verbs  are  in 
the  passive.  Presently  it  will  be  pointed 
out  that  there  is  a  rationale  in  this ;  but 
meantime  do  not  toss  these  words  aside 
as  if  this  passivity  denied  all  human  effort 
or  ignored  intelligible  law.  What  is  im- 
plied for  the  soul  here  is  no  more  than  is 
everywhere  claimed  for  the  body.  In 
physiology  the  verbs  describing  the  pro- 
cesses of  growth  are  in  the  passive. 
Growth  is  not  voluntary ;  it  takes  place, 
it  happens,  it  is  wrought  upon  matter. 
So  here.  **Ye  must  be  born  again '^— 
we  cannot  born  ourselves,  **Be  not 
conformed  to  this  world,  but  be  ye  trans- 
formed'^'^— we    are    subjects   to  a   trans- 


15^  THE   CHANGED    LIFE. 

forming  influence,  we  do  not  transform 
ourselves.  Not  more  certain  is  it  that  it  is 
something  outside  the  thermometer  that 
produces  a  change  in  the  thermometer, 
than  it  is  something  outside  the  soul  of 
man  that  produces  a  moral  change  upon 
him.  That  he  must  be  susceptible  to 
that  change,  that  he  must  be  a  part)^  to 
it,  goes  without  saying ;  but  that  neither 
his  aptitude  nor  his  will  can  produce  it, 
is  equally  certain. 

Obvious  as  it  ought  to  seem,  this 
may  be  to  some  an  almost  startling  rev- 
elation. The  change  we  have  been 
striving  after  is  not  to  be  produced  by 
any  more  striving  after.  It  is  to  be 
wrought  upon  us  by  the  moulding  of 
hands  beyond  our  own.  As  the  branch 
ascends,    and    the    bud   bursts,    and    the 


FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.      1 59 

fruit  reddens  under  the  co-operation  of 
influences  from  the  outside  air,  so  man 
rises  to  the  higher  stature  under  invisi- 
ble pressures  from  without.  The  radical 
defect  of  all  our  former  methods  of 
sanctification  was  the  attempt  to  gener- 
ate from  within  that  which  can  only 
be  wrought  upon  us  from  without.  Ac- 
cording to  the  first  Law  of  Motion: 
Every  bod}^  continues  in  its  state  of 
rest,  or  of  uniform  motion  in  a  straight 
line,  except  in  so  far  as  it  may  be  com- 
pelled by  impressed  forces  to  change  that 
state.  This  is  also  a  first  law  of  Chris- 
tianity. Every  man's  character  remains 
as  it  is,  or.  continues  in  the  direction  in 
which  it  is  going,  until  it  is  compelled 
by  impressed  forces  to  change  that  state. 
Our  failure  has  been  the  failure   to  put 


l6o  THE  CHANGED  UJ^U, 

ourselves  in  the  way  of  the  impressed 
forces.  There  is  a  clay,  and  there  is  a 
Potter;  we  have  tried  to  get  the  clay 
to  mould  the  clay. 

Whence,  then,  these  pressures,  and 
where  this  Potter?  The  answer  of  the 
formula  is  **By  reflecting  as  a  mirror 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  we  are  changed.'* 
But  this  is  not  very  clear.  What  is 
the  ^' glory"  of  the  Lord,  and  how  can 
mortal  man  reflect  it,  and  how  can  that 
act  as  an  ^ impressed  force"  in  mould- 
ing him  to  a  nobler  form?  The  word 
**glor>^" — the  word  which  has  to  bear 
the  weight  of  holding  those  **  impressed 
forces  " — is  a  stranger  in  current  speech, 
and  our  first  duty  is  to  seek  out  its 
equivalent  in  working  English.  It  sug- 
gests  at   first   a   radiance  of  some  kind, 


FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.      l6l 

sometliing  dazzling"  or  glittering,  some 
halo  such  as  the  old  masters  loved  to 
paint  round  the  heads  of  their  Ecce 
Homos.  But  that  is  paint,  mere  matter, 
the  visible  symbol  of  some  unseen  thing. 
What  is  that  unseen  thing?  It  is  that 
of  all  unseen  things  the  most  radiant, 
the  most  beautiful,  the  most  Divine,  and 
that  is  Charaeter.  On  earth,  in  Heaven, 
there  is  nothing  so  great,  so  glorious  as 
this.  The  word  has  many  meanings; 
in  ethics  it  can  have  but  one.  Glory 
is  character,  and  nothing  less,  and  it  can 
be  nothing  more.  The  earth  is  '*full 
of  the  glory  of  the  Lord,''  because  it 
is  full  of  His  character.  The  *^  Beauty 
of  the  Lord''  is  character.  ^*The  efful- 
gence of  His  Glory  "  is  character.  '*  The 
Glory  of  the  Only  Begotten"  is  charac- 


l62  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

ter,  tHe  character  whicli  is  **  fulness  of 
grace  and  truth."  And  when  God  told 
His  people  His  name  He  simply  gave 
them  His  character,  His  character  which 
was  Himself:  **  And  the  Lord  proclaimed 
the  Name  of  the  Lord  .  .  .  the  Lord, 
the  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious, 
long-suffering  and  abundant  in  goodness 
and  truth."  Glory  then  is  not  some- 
thing intangible,  or  ghostly,  or  transcen- 
dental. If  it  were  this  how  could  Paul 
ask  men  to  reflect  it?  Stripped  of  its 
physical  enswathement  it  is  Beauty, 
moral  and  spiritual  Beauty,  Beauty  in- 
finitely real,  infinitely  exalted,  yet  infin- 
itely near  and  infinitely  communicable. 
With  this  explanation  read  over  the 
sentence  once  more  in  paraphrase :  We 
ail   reflecting  as   a   mirror  the  character 


FORMULA  OF  SANCTIFICATION.      1 63 

of  Christ  are  transformed  into  the  same 
Image  from  character  to  character — from 
a  poor  character  to  a  better  one,  from  a 
better  one  to  one  a  little  better  still, 
from  that  to  one  still  more  complete, 
until  by  slow  degrees  the  Perfect  Image 
is  attained.  Here  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  sanctification  is  compressed 
into  a  sentence :  Reflect  the  character 
of  Christ,  and  you  will  become  like 
Christ. 

All  men  are  mirrors — that  is  the  first 
law  on  v/hich  this  formula  is  based.  One 
of  the  aptest  descriptions  of  a  human 
being  is  that  he  is  a  mirror.  As  we  sat 
at  table  to-night  the  world  in  which  each 
of  us  lived  and  moved  throughout  this 
day  was  focussed  in  the  room.  What  we 
saw  as  we  looked  at  one  another  was  not 


l64  THK  CHANGED  LIFE. 

one  another,  but  one  another's  world. 
We  were  an  arrangement  of  mirrors. 
The  scenes  we  saw  were  all  reproduced ; 
the  people  we  met  walked  to  and  fro; 
they  spoke,  they  bowed,  they  passed  us 
by,  did  everything  over  again  as  if  it  had 
been  real.  When  we  talked,  we  were  but 
looking  at  our  own  inirror  and  describing 
what  flitted  across  it;  our  listening  was 
not  hearing,  but  seeing — we  but  looked 
on  our  neighbor's  mirror.  All  human 
intercourse  is  a  seeing  of  reflections.  I 
meet  a  stranger  in  a  railway  carriage. 
The  cadence  of  his  first  word  tells  me  he 
is  English,  and  comes  from  Yorkshire. 
Without  knowing  it  he  has  reflected  his 
birthplace,  his  parents,  and  the  long  his- 
tory of  their  race.  Even  physiologically 
he    is    -H    mirror.       His    second    sentenc«* 


FORMULA   OF  SANCTIFICATION.      165 

records  that  he  is  a  politician,  and  a 
faint  inflexion  in  the  way  he  pronounces 
The  Times  reveals  his  party.  In  his  next 
remarks  I  see  reflected  a  whole  world  of 
experiences.  The  books  he  has  read,  the 
people  he  has  met,  the  influences  that 
have  played  upon  him  and  made  him  the 
man  he  is — these  are  all  registered  there 
by  a  pen  which  lets  nothing  pass,'  and 
whose  writing  can  never  be  blotted  out. 
What  I  am  reading  in  him  meantime  he 
also  is  reading  in  me ;  and  before  the 
journey  is  over  we  could  half  write  each 
other's  lives.  Whether  we  like  it  or  not, 
we  live  in  glass  houses.  The  mind^  the 
memory,  the  soul,  is  simply  a  vast  cham- 
ber panelled  with  looking-glass.  And 
upon  this  miraculous  arrangement  and 
endowment  depends  the  capacity  of  mor- 


l66  THE  CHANGED   LI?E. 

tal  souls  to  **  reflect  the  character  of  the 
Lord.'' 

But  this  is  not  all.  If  all  these  varied 
reflections  from  our  so-called  secret  life 
are  patent  to  the  world,  how  close  the 
writing,  how  complete  the  record,  within 
the  soul  itself?  For  the  influences  we 
meet  are  not  simply  held  for  a  moment 
on  the  polished  surface  and  thrown  off 
again  into  space.  Each  is  retained  where 
first  it  fell,  and  stored  up  in  the  soul  for 
ever. 

This  law  of  Assimilation  is  the  second, 
and  by  far  the  most  impressive  truth 
which  underlies  the  formula  of  sancti- 
fication — the  truth  that  men  are  not 
only  mirrors,  but  that  these  mirrors,  so 
far  from  being  mere  reflectors  of  the 
fleeting    things    they   see,    transfer    into 


FORMULA  OF  SANCTIFICATION.      1 67 

their  own  inmost  substance,  and  hold  in 
permanent  preservation,  the  things  that 
they  reflect.  No  one  knows  how  the 
soul  can  hold  these  things.  No  one 
knows  how  the  miracle  is  done.  No 
phenomenon  in  nature,  no  process  in 
chemistry,  no  chapter  in  necromancy 
can  even  help  us  to  begin  to  understand 
this  amazing  operation.  For,  think  of 
it,  the  past  is  not  only  focussed  there, 
in  a  man's  soul,  it  is  there.  How  could, 
it  be  reflected  from  there  if  it  were  not 
there  ?  All  things  that  he  has  ever  seen, 
known,  felt,  believed  of  the  surrounding 
world  are  now  within  him,  have  become 
part  of  him,  in  part  are  him — he  has 
been  changed  into  their  image.  He 
may  deny  it,  he  may  resent  it,  but  they 
are  there.     They  do  not  adhere  to  him, 


l68  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

they  are  transfused  through  him.  He 
cannot  alter  or  rub  them  out.  They  are 
not  in  his  memory,  they  are  in  him. 
His  soul  is  as  they  have  filled  it,  made 
it,  left  it.  These  things,  these  books, 
these  events,  these  influences  are  his 
makers.  In  their  hands  are  life  and 
death,  beauty  and  deformity.  When 
once  the  image  or  likeness  of  any  of 
these  is  fairly  presented  to  the  soul,  no 
pov/er  on  earth  can  hinder  two  things 
happening — it  must  be  absorbed  into 
the  soul,  and  for  ever  reflected  back 
again  from  character. 

Upon  these  astounding  yet  perfectly 
obvious  psychological  facts,  Paul  bases 
his  doctrine  of  sanctification.  He  sees 
that  character  i^*  a  thing  built  up  by 
Blow  degrees,    that  it   is   hourly  chang- 


FORMULA  OF  SANCTIFICATION.      169 

ing  for  better  or  for  worse  according  to 
the  images  which  flit  across  it.  One 
step  further  and  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  the  application  of  these  ideas 
to  the  central  problem  of  religion  will 
st^ind  before  us. 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLU- 
ENCE. 


T  F  events  change  men,  much  more  per- 
sons. No  man  can  meet  another  on 
the  street  without  making  some  mark 
upon  him.  We  say  we  exchange  words 
when  we  meet;  what  we  exchange  is 
souls.  And  when  intercourse  is  very 
close  and  very  frequent,  so  complete  is 
this  exchange  that  recognizable  bits  of 
the  one  soul  begin  to  show  in  the  other's 
nature,  and  the  second  is  conscious  of  a 

similar  and   growing   debt   to   the    first 
wo 


THE   ALCHSMY   OF   INFLUENCE.      I7I 

This  mysterious  approximating  of  two 
souls  who  has  not  witnessed  ?  Who  has 
not  watched  some  old  couple  come  down 
life's  pilgrimage  hand  in  hand,  with  such 
gentle  trust  and  joy  in  one  another  that 
their  very  faces  wore  the  self-same  look  ? 
These  were  net  two  souls ;  it  was  a  com- 
posite soul.  It  did  not  matter  to  which 
of  the  two  you  spoke,  you  would  have 
said  the  same  words  to  either.  It  was 
quite  indifferent  which  replied,  each 
would  have  said  the  same.  Half  a 
century's  reflecting  had  told  upon  them ; 
they  were  changed  into  the  same  image. 
It  is  the  I^aw  of  Influence  that  we  be- 
come like  those  whom  we  habitually  ad- 
mire:  these  had  become  like  because 
they  habitually  admired.      Through  all 

the  range  of  literature,  of  history,    and 

12 


172  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

biography  this  law  presides.  Men  are 
all  mosaics  of  other  men.  There  was 
a  savor  of  David  about  Jonathan  and 
a  savor  of  Jonathan  about  David.  Jean 
Valjean,  in  the  masterpiece  of  Victor 
Hugo,  is  Bishop  Bienvenu  risen  from 
the  dead.  Metempsychosis  is  a  fact. 
George  Eliot's  message  to  the  world 
was  that  men  and  women  make  men 
and  women.  The  Family,  the  cradle 
of  mankind,  has  no  meaning  apart  from 
this.  Society  itself  is  nothing  but  a 
rallying  point  for  these  omnipotent  forces 
to  do  their  work.  On  the  doctrine  of  In- 
fluence, in  short,  the  whole  vast  pyramid 
of  humanity  is  built. 

But  it  was  resented  for  Paul  to  make 
the  supreme  application  of  the  Law  of 
Influence.      It  was   a   tremendous  Infer- 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      1 73 

ence  to  make,  but  he  never  hesitated. 
He  himself  v/as  a  changed  man;  he 
knew  exactly  what  had  done  it;  it  was 
Christ.  On  the  Damascus  road  they 
met,  and  from  that  hour  his  life  was 
absorbed  in  His.  The  effect  could  not 
but  follow — on  words,  on  deeds,  on  career^ 
on  creed.  The  '^impressed  forces''  did 
their  vital  work.  He  became  like  Him 
Whom  he  habitually  loved.  *^  So  we 
ill,"  he  writes,  *' reflecting  as  a  mirror 
the  glor>-  of  Christ,  are  changed  into* 
the  same  image." 

Nothing  could  be  more  simple,  more 
intelligible,  more  natural,  more  super- 
natural. It  is  an  analogy  from  an  every- 
day fact.  Since  we  are  what  we  are  by 
the  impacts  of  those  who  surround  us, 
those  who  surround  themselves  with  the 


174  'i'HS   CHANGED   LIFE. 

highest  will  be  those  who  change  into 
the  highest.  There  are  some  men  and 
some  women  in  whose  company  we  are 
always  at  our  best.  While  with  them 
we  cannot  think  mean  thoughts  or  speak 
ungenerous  words.  Their  mere  presence 
is  elevation,  purification,  sanctity.  All 
the  best  stops  in  our  nature  are  drawn 
out  by  their  intercourse,  and  we  find  a 
music  in  our  souls  that  was  never  there 
before.  Suppose  even  thai  influence  pro- 
longed through  a  month,  a  year,  a  life- 
time, and  what  could  not  life  become? 
Here,  even  on  the  common  plane  of  life, 
talking  our  language,  walking  our  streets, 
working  side  by  side,  are  sanctifiers  of 
souls ;  here,  breathing  through  common 
clay,  is  Heaven ;  here,  energies  charged 
even  through   a   temporal  medium  with 


THF)   ALCHEMY   OF   INFLUENCK.      1 75 

the  virtue  of  regeneration.  If  to  live 
with  men,  diluted  to  the  millionth  de- 
gree with  the  virtue  of  the  Highest,  can 
exalt  and  purify  the  nature,  what  bounds 
can  be  set  to  the  influence  of  Christ  ?  To  ^ 
live  with  Socrates — with  unveiled  face — 
must  have  made  one  wise  ;  with  Aristides, 
just.  Francis  of  Assisi  must  have  made 
one  gentle ;  Savonarola,  strong.  But  to 
.have  lived  with  Christ?  To  have  lived 
with  Christ  must  have  made  one  like 
Christ ;    that  is  to  say,  A  Chrisiian. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  to  live  vath  Christ 
did  produce  this  effect.  It  produced  it  in 
the  case  of  Paul.  And  during  Christ's 
lifetime  the  experiment  was  tried  in  an 
even  more  startling  form.  A  few  raw, 
unspiritual,  uninspiring  men,  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  inner  circle  of  His  friend- 


176  THE  CHANGED  UFE. 

ship.  The  change  began  at  once.  Day 
by  day  we  can  almost  see  the  first  disr 
ciples  grow.  First  there  steals  over  them 
the  faintest  possible  adumbration  of  His 
character,  and  occasionally,  very  occa- 
sionally, they  do  a  thing  or  say  a  thing 
that  they  could  not  have  done  or  said  had 
they  not  been  living  there.  Slowly  the 
spell  of  His  Life  deepens.  Reach  after 
reach  of  their  nature  is  overtaken,  thawed, 
subjugated,  sanctified.  Their  manners 
soften,  their  words  become  more  gentle. 
their  conduct  more  unselfish.  As  swal- 
lows who  have  found  a  summer,  as  frozen 
■buds  the  spring,  their  starved  humanity 
bursts  into  a  fuller  life.  They  do  not 
know  how  it  is,  but  they  are  different 
men.  One  day  they  find  themselves  like 
their  Master,  going  about  and  doing  good. 


THE   ALCHEMY  OF  INFI^UENCE.      1 77 

To  themselves  it  is  unaccountable,  but 
they  cannot  do  otherwise.  They  were 
not  told  to  do  it,  it  came  to  them  to  do  it. 
But  the  people  who  watch  them  know 
well  how  to  account  for  it — **They  have 
been,''  they  whisper,  ''with  Jesus.*'  Al- 
ready even,  the  mark  and  seal  of  His 
character  is  upon  them — ''They  have 
been  with  Jesus."  Unparalleled  phe- 
nomenon, that  these  poor  fishermen  should 
remind  other  men  of  Christ !  Stupendous 
victory  and  mystery  of  regeneration  that 
mortal  men  should  suggest  to  the  world, 
God! 

There  is  something  almost  melting  in 
the  way  His  contemporaries,  and  John 
especially,  speak  of  the  influence  of 
Christ.  John  lived  himself  in  daily  won- 
der at  Him;  he  was  overpowered,  over- 


17b  THE  CHANGED   I.IFE. 

awed,  entranced,  transfigured.  To  Ms 
mind  it  was  impossible  for  any  one  to 
come  under  this  influence  and  ever  be 
the  same  again.  *  *  Whosoever  abideth  in 
Him  sinneth  not,^'  he  said.  It  was  in- 
conceivable that  he  should  sin,  as  in- 
conceivable as  that  ice  should  live  in  a 
burning  sun,  or  darkness  coexist  with 
noon.  If  any  one  did  sin,  it  was  to  John 
the  simple  proof  that  he  could  never  have 
met  Christ.  ** Whosoever  sinneth,*'  he 
exclaims,  '^hath  not  seen  Him^  neither 
known  Htm,^^  Sin  was  abashed  in  this 
Presence.  Its  roots  withered.  Its  sway 
and  victory  were  for  ever  at  an  end. 

But  these  were  His  contemporaries.  It 
was  easy  for  them  to  be  influenced  by 
Him,  for  they  were  every  day  and  all  the 
day  together.       But  how  can  we  mirror 


THK  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      1 79 

that  which  we  have  never  seen?  How 
can  all  this  stupendous  result  be  pro- 
duced by  a  Memory,  by  the  scantiest  of 
all  Biographies,  by  One  who  lived  and 
left  this  earth  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago?  How  can  modern  men  to-day  make 
Christ,  the  absent  Christ,  their  most  con- 
stant companion  still?  The  answer  is 
that  Friendship  is  a  spiritual  thing.  It 
is  independent  of  Matter,  or  Space,  or 
Time.  That  which  I  love  in  my  friend 
is  not  that  which  I  see.  What  influences 
me  in  my  friend  is  not  his  body  but  his 
spirit.  It  would  have  been  an  ineffable 
experience  truly  to  have  lived  at  that 
time — 

*•  I  think  when  I  read  the  sweet  story  of  old* 
How  when  Jesus  was  here  among  men, 


l8o  THK  CHANGED  LIFE. 

He  took  little  children  like  lambs  to  His  fold, 
I  should  like  to  have  been  with  Him  then. 

*'  I  wish  that  His  hand  had  been  laid  on  my  head, 
That  His  arms  had  been  thrown  around  me, 
And  that  I  had  seen  His  kind  look  when  he  said, 
*  Let  the  little  ones  come  unto  me.'  " 

And  yet,  if  Christ  were  to  come  into  the 
world  again  few  of  us  probably  would 
ever  have  a  chance  of  seeing  Him.  Mil- 
lions of  her  subjects,  in  this  little  coun- 
try, have  never  seen^  their  own  Queen. 
And  there  would  be  millions  of  the  sub- 
jects of  Christ  who  could  never  get  with- 
in speaking  distance  of  Him  if  He  were 
here.  Our  companionship  with  Him, 
like  all  true  companionship,  is  a  spiritual 
communion.  All  friendship,  all  love, 
human   and   Divine,   is  purely  spiritual. 


the;   AI.CHKMY   OF   INFLUKNCK.      l8l 

It  was  after  He  was  risen  that  He  in- 
fluenced even  the  disciples  most.  Hence 
in  reflecting  the  character  of  Christ,  it  is 
no  real  obstacle  that  we  may  never  have 
been  in  visible  contact  with  Himself. 

There  lived  once  a  young  girl  whose 
perfect  grace  of  character  was  the  wonder 
of  those  who  knew  her.  She  wore  on 
her  neck  a  gold  locket  which  no  one  was 
ever  allowed  to  open.  One  day,  in  a  mo- 
ment of  unusual  confidence,  one  of  her 
companions  was  allowed  to  touch  its 
spring  and  learn  its  secret.  She  saw 
written  these  words — '^  IVhom  having  not 
seen^  I  love, ' '  That  was  the  secret  of  hei 
beautiful  life.  She  had  been  changed 
into  the  Same  Image. 

Now  this  is  not  imitation,  but  a  much 
deeper    thing.       Mark    this    distinction. 


l82  THE  CHANGED  IJFE. 

For  the  difference  in  the  process,  as  well 
as  in  the  result,  may  be  as  great  as  that 
between  a  photograph  secured  by  the 
infallible  pencil  of  the  sun,  and  the  rude 
outline  from  a  school-boy's  chalk.  Imi- 
tation is  mechanical,  reflection  organic. 
The  one  is  occasional,  the  other  habitual. 
In  the  one  case,  man  comes  to  God  and 
imitates  Him  ;  in  the  other,  God  comes 
to  man  and  imprints  Himself  upon  Him. 
It  is  quite  true  that  there  is  an  imitation 
of  Christ  which  amounts  to  reflection. 
But  Paul's  term  includes  all  that  the 
other  holds,  and  is  open  to  no  mistake. 
*'Make  Christ  your  most  constant 
companion" — this  is  what  it  practically 
means  for  us.  Be  more  under  His  in- 
fluence than  under  any  other  influence. 
Ten  minutes  spent  in  His  society  every 


THK  ALCHEMY  OF   INFLUENCE.      183 

day,  ay,  two  minutes  if  it  be  face  to 
face,  and  heart  to  heart,  will  make  the 
whole  day  different.  Every  charactei 
has  an  inward  spring,  let  Christ  be  it. 
Every  action  has  a  key-note,  let  Christ 
set  it.  Yesterday  you  got  a  certain  let- 
ter. You  sat  down  and  wrote  a  reply 
which  almost  scorched  the  paper.  You 
picked  the  cruellest  adjectives  you  knew 
and  sent  it  forth,  without  a  pang,  to  do 
its  ruthless  work.  You  did  that  because 
your  life  was  set  in  the  wrong  key. 
You  began  the  day  with  the  mirror 
placed  at  the  wrong  angle.  To-morrow, 
at  day-break,  turn  it  towards  Him,  and 
even  to  your  enemy  the  fashion  of  your 
countenance  will  be  changed.  What- 
ever you  then  do,  one  thing  you  will 
find   you   could   not   do— you   could    not 


l84  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

write  that  letter.  Your  first  impulse 
may  be  the  same,  your  judgment  may 
be  unchanged,  but  if  you  try  it  the  ink 
will  dry  on  your  pen,  and  5^ou  Tvill 
rise  from  your  desk  an  unavenged, 
but  a  greater  and  more  Christian,  man. 
Throughout  the  whole  day  your  actions, 
down  to  the  last  detail,  will  do  homage 
to  that  early  vision.  Yesterday  you 
thought  mostly  about  yourself.  To-day 
the  poor  will  meet  you,  and  you  will 
feed  them.  The  helpless,  the  tempted, 
the  sad,  will  throng  about  you,  and 
each  you  will  befriend.  Where  were 
all  these  people  yesterday?  Where  they 
are  to-day,  but  you  did  not  see  them 
It  is  in  reflected  light  that  the  poor  are 
seen.  But  your  soul  to-day  is  not  at 
the  ordinary  angle.     **  Things  which  are 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      185 

not  seen*'  are  visible.  For  a  few  short 
hours  you  live  the  Eternal  Life.  The 
eternal  life,  the  life  of  faith,  is  simply 
the  life  of  the  higher  vision.  Faith  is 
an  attitude — a  mirror  set  at  the  right 
angle. 

When  to-morrow  is  over,  and  in  the 
evening  you  review  it,  you  will  won- 
der how  you  did  it.  You  will  not  be 
conscious  that  you  strove  for  anything, 
or  imitated  anything,  or  crucified  any- 
thing. You  will  be  conscious  of  Christ ; 
that  He  was  with  you,  that  without 
compulsion  you  were  yet  compelled,  that 
without  force,  or  noise,  or  proclamation, 
the  revolution  was  accomplished.  You 
do  not  congratulate  yourself  as  one  who 
has  done  a  mighty  deed,  or  achieved  a 
personal  success,  or  stored  up  a  fund  of 


l86  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

'* Christian  experience"  to  ensure  the 
same  result  again.  What  you  are  con- 
scions  of  is  "the  glory  of  the  Lord." 
And  what  the  world  is  conscious  of,  if 
the  result  be  a  true  one,  is  also  '^the 
glory  of  the  Lord."  In  looking  at  a 
mirror  one  does  not  see  the  mirror,  or 
think  of  it,  but  only  of  what  it  reflects. 
For  a  mirror  never  calls  attention  to 
itself — except  when  there  are  flaws  in  it. 
That  this  is  a  real  experience  and  not 
a  vision,  that  this  life  is  possible  to 
meuj  is  being  lived  by  men  to-day,  is 
simple  biographical  fact.  From  a  thou- 
sand witnesses  I  cannot  forbear  to  sum- 
mon one.  The  following  are  the  words 
of  one  of  the  highest  intellects  this  age 
has  known,  a  man  who  shared  the  bur- 
dens of  his  country  as   few   have   done. 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      187 


and  who,  not  in  the  shadows  of  old  age, 
but  in  the  high  noon  of  his  success, 
gave  this  confession — I  quote  it  with 
only  a  few  abridgments — to  the  world : 

**  I  want  to  speak  to-night  only  a  little, 
but  that  little  I  desire  to  speak  of  the 
sacred  name  of  Christ,  who  is  my  life, 
my  inspiration,  my  hope,  and  my  surety. 
I  cannot  help  stopping  and  looking  back 
upon  the  past.  And  I  wish,  as  if  I  had 
never  done  it  before,  to  bear  witness,  not 
only  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God,  but 
that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God  as  mani- 
fested in  Christ  Jesus,  that  I  am  what  I 
am.  I  recognize  the  sublimity  and  grand- 
eur of  the  revelation  of  God  in  His  eter- 
nal fatherhood  as  one  that  made  the  heav- 
ens, that  founded  the  earth,  and  that  r^ 
13 


1 88  THE  CHANGED   I.IFE. 

gaids  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth,  compre- 
hending them  in  one  universal  mercy; 
but  it  is  the  God  that  is  manifested  in 
Jesus  Christ,  revealed  by  His  life,  made 
known  by  the  inflections  of  His  feelings, 
by  His  discourse,  and  by  His  deeds — it  is 
that  God  that  I  desire  to  confess  to-night, 
and  of  whom  I  desire  to  say,  *  By  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  I  am  v/hat  I 
am.* 

'*  If  you  ask  me  precisely  what  I  mean 
by  that,  I  say,  frankly,  that  more  than 
any  recognized  influence  of  my  father  or 
my  mother  upon  me-;  more  than  the 
social  influence  of  all  the  members  of  my 
father's  household;  more,  so  far  as  I  can 
trace  it,  or  so  far  as  I  am  made  aware  of 
it,  than  all  the  social  influences  of  every 
kind,  Christ  has  had  the  formation  of  my 


THK  ALCHEMY  OP  INFLUENCE.   1 89 

mind  and  my  disposition.  My  hidden 
ideals  of  what  is  beautiful  I  have  drawn 
from  Christ.  My  thoughts  of  what  is 
manly,  and  noble,  and  pure,  have  almost 
aL  of  them  arisen  from  the  I^ord  Jesus 
Christ  Many  men  have  educated  them- 
selves by  reading  Plutarch's  Lives  of  the 
Ancient  Worthies,  and  setting  before 
themselves  one  and  another  of  these 
that  in  different  ages  have  achieved 
celebrity ;  and  they  have  recognized 
the  great  power  of  these  men  on  them- 
selves. Now  I  do  not  perceive  that  poet, 
or  philosopher,  or  reformer,  or  general, 
or  any  other  great  man,  ever  has  dwelt 
in  my  imagination  and  in  my  thought 
as  the  simple  Jesus  has.  For  more  than 
twenty-five  years  I  instinctively  have 
gone  to  Christ  to  draw  a  measure  and  a 


190  THE  CHANGED   UFE. 

rule  for  everything.  Whenever  there  has 
been  a  necessity  for  it,  I  have  sought — 
and  at  last  almost  spontaneously — to 
throw  myself  into  the  companionship 
of  Christ ;  and  early,  by  my  imagination, 
I  could  see  Him  standing  and  looking 
quietly  and  lovingly  upon  me.  There 
seemed  almost  to  drop  from  His  face  an 
influence  upon  me  that  suggested  what 
was  the  right  thing  in  the  controlling 
of  passion,  in  the  subduing  of  pride, 
in  the  overcoming  of  selfishness ;  and 
it  is  from  Christ,  manifested  to  my  in- 
ward eye,  that  I  have  consciously  derived 
more  ideals,  more  models,  more  influ- 
ences, than  from  any  human  character 
whatever. 

*  *  That  is  not  all.     I  feel  conscious  that 
I  have  deiived  from  the  I^ord  Jesus  Christ 


THK  ALCHKMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      I9I 

every  thought  that  makes  heaven  a  real- 
ity to  me,  and  every  thought  that  paves 
the  road  that  lies  between  me  and  heaven. 
All  my  conceptions  of  the  progress  of 
grace  in  the  soul ;  all  the  steps  by  which 
divine  life  is  evolved ;  all  the  ideals  that 
overhang  the  blessed  sphere  which  awaits 
us  beyond  this  world — these  are  derived 
from  the  Saviour.  The  life  that  I  now 
live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

*  *  That  is  not  all.  Much  as  my  future 
includes  all  these  elements  which  go  to 
make  the  blessed  fabric  of  earthly  life^ 
yet,  after  all,  what  the  summer  is  com- 
pared with  all  its  earthly  products — 
flowers,  and  leaves,  and  grass — that  is 
Christ  compared  with  all  the  products  of 
Christ  in  my  mind  and  in  my  soul.     All 


192  THE  CHANGED   UFE. 


tlie  flowers  and  leaves  of  sympathy ;  all 
the  twining  joys  that  come  from  my  heart 
as  a  Christian — these  I  take  and  hold  in 
the  future,  but  they  are  to  me  what  the 
flowers  and  leaves  of  summer  are  com- 
pared with  the  sun  that  makes  the  sum- 
mer. Christ  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega, 
the  beginning  and  the  end  of  my  better 
life. 

'^When  I  read  the  Bible,  I  gather  a 
great  deal  from  the  Old  Testament,  and 
from  the  Pauline  portions  of  the  New 
Testament ;  but  after  all,  I  am  conscious 
that  the  fruit  of  the  Bible  is  Christ. 
That  is  what  1  read  it  for,  and  that  is 
what  I  find  that  is  worth  reading.  I 
have  had  a  hunger  to  be  loved  of  Christ. 
You  all  know,  in  some  relations,  what 
it  is  to  be  hungry  for  love.     Your  heart 


THE  AI^CHEMY  OF  INFI.UKNCK.     I93 

seems  unsatisfied  till  you  can  draw  some- 
thing more  toward  you  from  those  that 
are  dearest  to  you.  There  have  been 
times  when  I  have  had  an  unspeakable 
heart-hunger  for  Christ's  love.  My  sense 
of  sin  is  never  strong  when  I  think  of 
the  law ;  my  sense  of  sin  is  strong  when 
I  think  of  love — if  there  is  any  diflference 
between  law  and  love.  It  is  when  draw- 
ing near  the  L/Ord  Jesus  Christ,  and  long- 
ing to  be  loved,  that  I  have  the  most 
vivid  sense  of  unsymmetry,  of  imperfec- 
tion, of  absolute  unworthiness,  and  of 
my  sinfulness.  Character  and  conduct 
are  never  so  vividly  set  before  me  as 
when  in  silence  I  bend  in  the  presence 
of  Christ,  revealed  not  in  wrath,  but  in 
love  to  me.  I  never  so  much  long  to 
be  lovely,  that  I  ma)'  be  loved^  as  when 


194  'I'HH  CHANGED   I^IFK. 

I  have  this  revelation  of  Christ  before  my 
mind. 

**  In  looking  back  upon  my  experience, 
that  part  of  my  life  which  stands  out, 
and  which  I  remember  most  vividly,  is 
just  that  part  that  has  had  some  con- 
scious association  with  Chnst.  All  the 
rest  is  pale,  and  thin,  and  lies  like  clouds 
on  the  horizon.  Doctrines,  systems, 
measures,  methods — what  may  be  called 
the  necessary  mechanical  and  external 
part  of  worship ;  the  part  which  the 
senses  would  recognize — this  seems  to 
have  withered  and  fallen  off  like  leaves 
of  last  summer ;  but  that  part  which  has 
taken  hold  of  Christ  abides." 

Can  any  one  hear  this  life-music,  with 
Its  throbbing  refrain   of  Christ,  and  re- 


THE  ALCHEMY  OF  INFLUENCE.      1 95 

main  unmoved  by  envy  or  desire  ?  Yet, 
till  we  have  lived  like  this  we  have  nevei 
lived  at  all. 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT. 


•^  I  ^HEN  you  reduce  religion  to  a  com- 
mon Friendship?  A  common 
Friendship — Who  talks  of  a  common 
Friendship  !  There  is  no  such  thing  in 
the  world.  On  earth  no  word  is  more 
sublime.  Friendship  is  the  nearest  thing 
we  know  to  what  religion  is.  God  is 
love.  And  to  make  religion  akin  to 
Friendship  is  simply  to  give  it  the  high- 
est expression  conceivable  by  man.  But 
if  by  demurring  to  "a  common  friend- 
ship*' is  meant  a  protest  against  the 
greatest  and   the  holiest  in  religion   be- 


19« 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  1 97 

ing  Spoken  of  in  intelligible  terms,  then 
I  am  afraid  the  objection  is  all  too  real. 
Men  always  look  for  a  mystery  wheu 
one  talks  of  sanctification ;  some  mys- 
tery  apart  from  that  which  must  ever 
be  mysterious  wherever  Spirit  works. 
It  is  thought  some  peculiar  secret  lies 
behind  it,  some  occult  experience  which 
only  the  initiated  know.  Thousands  of 
persons  go  to  church  every  Sunday  hop- 
ing to  solve  this  myster>\  At  meetings, 
at  conferences,  many  a  time  they  have 
reached  what  they  thought  was  the  very 
brink  of  it,  but  somehow  no  further 
revelation  came.  Poring  over  religious 
books,  how  often  were  they  not  within 
a  paragraph  of  it;  the  next  page,  the 
next  sentence,  would  discover  all,  and 
they  would  be  borne  on   a   flowing  tide 


198  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

for  ever.  But  nothing  happened.  The 
next  sentence  and  the  next  page  were 
read,  and  still  it  eluded  them ;  and 
though  the  promise  of  its  coming  kept 
faithfully  up  to  the  end,  the  last  chapt-er 
found  them  still  pursuing.  Why  did 
nothing  happen?  Because  there  was 
nothing  to  happen — nothing  of  the  kind 
they  were  looking  for.  Why  did  it  elude 
them?  Because  there  was  no  ^'it.'^ 
When  shall  we  learn  that  the  pursuit 
of  holiness  is  simply  the  pursuit  of 
Christ?  When  shall'  we  substitute  for 
the  **it"  of  a  fictitious  aspiration,  the 
approach  to  a  Iviving  Friend?  Sanctity 
is  in  character  and  not  in  moods ;  Divin- 
ity in  our  own  plain  calm  humanity,  and 
in  no  mystic  rapture  of  the  soul. 

And  yet  there  are  others  who,  for  ex- 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  1 99 

actly  a  contrary  reason,  will  find  scant 
satisfaction  here.  Their  complaint  is 
not  that  a  religion  expressed  in  terms  of 
Friendship  is  too  homely,  but  that  it  is 
still  too  mystical.  To  '  *  abide ' '  in  Christ, 
to  **make  Christ  our  most  constant  com 
panion, ' '  is  to  them  the  purest  mysticism. 
They  want  something  absolutely  tangible 
and  absolutely  direct.  These  are  not  the 
poetical  souls  who  seek  a  sign,  a  mysti- 
cism in  excess ;  but  the  prosaic  natures 
whose  want  is  mathematical  definition 
in  details.  Yet  it  is  perhaps  not  possible 
to  reduce  this  problem  to  much  more 
rigid  elements.  The  beauty  of  Friend- 
ship is  its  infinity.  One  can  never  evac- 
uate life  of  mysticism.  Home  is  full  of 
it,  love  is  full  of  it,  religion  is  full  of  it. 
Why  stumble  at  that  in  the  relation  of 


200  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

mac    to  Christ  wliicli   is  natural  in  the 
relation  of  man  to  man  ? 

If  any  one  cannot  conceive  or  realize  a 
mystical  relation  with  Christ,  perhaps  all 
that  can  be  done  is  to  help  him  to  step 
on  to  it  by  still  plainer  analogies  from 
common  life.  How  do  I  know  Shake- 
speare or  Dante?  By  communing  with 
their  words  and  thoughts.  Many  men 
know  Dante  better  than  their  own  fathers. 
He  influences  them  more.  As  a  spiritual 
presence  he  is  more  near  to  them,  as  a 
vSpiritual  force  more  real.  Is  there  any 
reason  why  a  greater  than  Shakespeare 
or  Dante,  v/ho  also  walked  this  earth, 
who  left  great  words  behind  Him,  who 
has  great  works  everywhere  in  the  world 
now,  should  not  also  instruct,  inspire,  and 
mould  the  characters  of  men  ?     I  do  not 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  201 


limit  Christ's  influence  to  this.  It  is  this, 
and  it  is  more.  But  Christ,  so  far  from 
resenting  or  discouraging  this  relation  of 
Friendship,  Himself  proposed  it.  "Abide 
in  Me ' '  was  almost  His  last  word  to  the 
world.  And  He  partly  met  the  difficulty 
of  those  who  feel  its  intangibleness  by 
adding  the  practical  clause,  "If  ye  abide 
in  Me  a7id  My  words  abide  hi  you.''^ 

Begin  with  His  words.  Words  can 
scarcely  ever  be  long  impersonal.  Christ 
Himself  was  a  Word,  a  word  made  Flesh. 
Make  His  words  flesh ;  do  them,  live 
them,  and  you  must  live  Christ,  "//i? 
that  keepeth  My  conivtandinents^  he  it  is 
that  loveth  Me.''  Obey  Him  and  yon 
must  love  Him.  Abide  in  Him  and  you 
must  obey  Him.  Cultivate  His  Friend- 
ship,    Live  after   Christ,    in  His  Spirit, 


202  THE  CHANGED  UFE. 

as  in  His  Presence,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  think  what  more  you  can  do.  Take 
this  at  least  as  a  first  lesson,  as  introduc- 
tion. If  you  cannot  at  once  and  always 
feel  the  play  of  His  life  upon  yours,  watch 
for  it  also  indirectly.  "  The  whole  earth 
is  full  of  the  character  of  the  Lord.*' 
Christ  is  the  Light  of  the  world,  and 
much  of  His  Light  is  reflected  from 
things  in  the  world — even  from  clouds. 
Sunlight  is  stored  in  every  leaf,  from 
leaf  through  coal,  and  it  comforts  us 
thence  when  days  are  dark  and  we  can- 
not see  the  sun.  Christ  shines  throiigh 
men,  through  books,  through  history, 
through  nature,  music,  art.  Look  for 
Him  there.  *' Every  day  one  should 
either  look  at  a  beautiful  picture,  or 
hear  beautiful  music,  or  read  a  beautiful 


THE   FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  203 

poem.'*      The  real  danger  of  mysticism 
is  not  making  it  broad  enougli. 

Do  not  think  that  nothing  is  happen- 
ing because  you  do  not  see  yourself  grow, 
or  hear  the  whirr  of  the  machinery.  All 
great  things  grow  noiselessly.  You  can 
see  a  mushroom  grow,  but  never  a  child. 
Mr.  Darwin  tells  us  that  Evolution  pro- 
ceeds by  ' '  numerous,  successive,  and 
slight  modifications."  Paul  knew  that, 
and  put  it,  only  in  more  beautiful  words, 
into  the  heart  of  his  formula.  He  said 
for  the  comforting  of  all  slowly  perfect- 
ing souls  that  they  grew  '  *  from  character 
to  character."  *'The  inward  man,'*  he 
says  elsewhere,  ' '  is  renewed  from  day  to 
day."  All  thorough  work  is  slow;  all 
true  development  by  minute,  slight,  and 

insensible   metamorphoses.      The  higher 

14 


204  THE  CHANGED  LIFE. 

the  structure,  moreover,  the  slower  the 
progress.  As  the  biologist  runs  his  eye 
over  the  long  Ascent  of  Life  he  sees  the 
lowest  forms  of  animals  develop  in  an 
hour ;  the  next  above  these  reach  matur- 
ity in  a  day ;  those  higher  still  take  weeks 
or  months  to  perfect ;  but  the  few  at  the 
top  demand  the  long  experiment  of  years. 
If  a  child  and  an  ape  are  born  on  the  same 
day,  the  last  will  be  in  full  possession  of 
its  faculties  and  doing  the  active  work  of 
life  before  the  child  has  left  its  cradle. 
Life  is  the  cradle  of  eternity.  As  the 
man  is  to  the  animal  in  the  slowness  of 
his  evolution,  so  is  the  spiritual  man  to 
the  natural  man.  Foundations  which 
have  to  bear  the  weight  of  an  eternal 
life  must  be  surely  laid.  Character  is 
to   wear   for   ever ;    who  will   wonder   oi 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  205 

grudge  that  it  cannot  be  developed  in 
a  day? 

To  await  the  growing  of  a  soul,  nev- 
ertheless, is  au  almost  Divine  act  of 
faith.  How  pardonable,  surely,  the  im- 
patience of  deformity  with  itself,  of  a 
consciously  despicable  character  standing 
before  Christ,  wondering,  yearning,  hun- 
gering to  be  like  that?  Yet  must  one 
trust  the  process  fearlessly,  and  without 
misgiving.  **  The  Lord  the  Spirit ''  will 
do  His  part.  The  tempting  expedient 
is,  in  haste  for  abrupt  or  visible  progress, 
to  try  some  method  less  spiritual,  or  to 
defeat  the  end  by  watching  for  effects 
instead  of  keeping  the  eye  on  the  Cause. 
A  photograph  prints  from  the  negative 
only  while  exposed  to  the  sun.  While 
the   artist   is    looking   to  see  how   it  is 


2o6  THE  CHANGED   LIFE. 

getting  on  lie  simply  stops  the  getting 
on.  Whatever  of  wise  supervision  the 
soul  may  need,  it  is  certain  it  can  never 
be  over-exposed,  or  that,  being  exposed, 
anything  else  in  the  world  can  improve 
the  result  or  quicken  it.  The  creation 
of  a  new  heart,  the  renewing  of  a  right 
spirit,  is  an  omnipotent  work  of  God. 
Leave  it  to  the  Creator.  *'He  which 
hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you  will 
perfect  it  unto  that  day.*' 

No  man,  nevertheless,  who  feels  the 
worth  and  solemnity  of  what  is  at  stake 
will  be  careless  as  to  his  progress.  To 
become  like  Christ  is  the  only  thing  in 
the  world  worth  caring  for,  the  thing 
before  which  every  ambition  of  man  is 
folly,  and  all  lower  achievement  vain. 
Those  only  who   make    this  quest    the 


THK  FIRST  KXPERIMENT.  207 

supreme  desire  and  passion  of  their  lives 
can  even  begin  to  hope  to  reach  it.  If, 
therefore,  it  has  seemed  up  to  this  point 
as  if  all  depended  on  passivity,  let  me 
now  assert,  with  conviction  more  intense, 
that  all  depends  on  activity.  A  religion 
of  effortless  adoration  may  be  a  religion 
for  an  angel,  but  never  for  a  man.  Not 
in  the  contemplative,  but  in  the  active, 
lies  true  hope;  not  in  rapture,  but  in 
reality,  lies  true  life ;  not  in  the  realm 
of  ideals,  but  among  tangible  things,  is 
man's  sanctification  wrought.  Resolu- 
tion, effort,  pain,  self- crucifixion,  agony 
— all  the  things  already  dismissed  as 
futile  in  themselves  must  now  be  restored 
to  oflSce,  and  a  tenfold  responsibility  laid 
upon  them.  For  what  is  their  ofiice? 
Nothing  less  than  to  move  the  vast  in- 


208  THK  CHANGED  LIFE. 

ertia  of  tlie  soul,  and  place  it,  and  keep 
it  where  the  spiritual  forces  will  act 
upon  it.  It  is  to  rally  the  forces  of  the 
will,  and  keep  the  surface  of  the  mirror 
bright  and  ever  in  position.  It  is  to 
uncover  the  face  which  is  to  look  at 
Christ,  and  draw  down  the  veil  when 
unhallowed  sights  are  near.  You  have, 
perhaps,  gone  with  an  astronomer  to 
watch  him  photograph  the  spectrum  of 
a  star.  As  you  entered  the  dark  vault 
of  the  observatory  you  saw  him  begin 
by  lighting  a  candle.  To  see  the  star 
with  ?  No ;  but  to  see  to  adjust  the 
instrument  to  see  the  star  with.  It  was 
the  star  that  was  going  to  take  the 
photograph ;  it  was,  also,  the  astronomer. 
For  a  long  time  he  worked  in  the  dim- 
ness, screwing  tubes  and  polishing  lenses 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT.  209 

and  adjusting  reflectors,  and  only  after 
mucli  labor  the  finely  focussed  instru- 
ment was  brought  to  bear.  Ther  he 
blew  out  the  light,  and  left  the  star  'o 
do  its  work  upon  the  plate  alone.  The 
day's  task  for  the  Christian  is  to  bring 
his  instrument  to  bear.  Having  done 
that  he  may  blow  out  his  candle.  All 
the  evidences  of  Christianity  which  have 
brought  him  there,  all  aids  to  Faith,  all 
acts  of  worship,  all  the  leverages  of  the 
Church,  all  Prayer  and  Meditation,  all 
girding  of  the  Will — these  lesser  pro- 
cesses, these  candle-light  activities  for 
that  supreme  hour,  may  be  set  aside. 
But,  remember,  it  is  but  for  an  hour. 
The  wise  man  will  be  he  who  quickest 
lights  his  candle;  the  wisest  he  who 
never  lets  it  out     To-morrow,  the  next 


210  THK  CHANGED  LIFK. 

moment,  he,  a  poor,  darkened,  blurred 
soul,  may  need  it  again  to  focus  the 
Image  better,  to  take  a  mote  oflf  the 
lens,  to  clear  the  mirror  from  a  breath 
with  which  the  world  has  dulled  it. 

No  readjustment  is  ever  required  on 
behalf  of  the  Star.  That  is  one  great 
fixed  point  in  this  shifting  universe.  But 
the  world  tnoves.  And  each  day,  each 
hour,  demands  a  further  motion  and  read- 
justment for  the  soul.  A  telescope  in  an 
observatory  follows  a  star  by  clockwork, 
but  the  clockwork  of  the  soul  is  called 
the  Will,  Hence,  while  the  soul  in  pas- 
sivity reflects  the  Image  of  the  Lord,  the 
Will  in  intense  activity  holds  the  mirror 
in  position  lest  the  drifting  motion  of  the 
world  bear  it  beyond  the  line  of  vision. 
To  '* follow   Christ*'  is  largely  to  keep 


THE  FIRST  EXPKRIMKNT.  211 

the  soul  in  such  position  as  will  allow 
for  the  motion  of  the  earth.  And  this 
calculated  counteracting  of  the  move- 
ments of  a  world,  this  holding  of  the 
mirror  exactly  opposite  to  the  Mirrored, 
this  steadying  of  the  faculties  unerringly 
through  cloud  and  earthquake,  fire  and 
sword,  is  the  stupendous  co-operating 
labor  of  the  Will.  It  is  all  man's 
work.  It  is  all  Christ's  work.  In  prac- 
tice it  is  both ;  in  theory  it  is  both. 
But-  the  wise  man  will  say  in  practice, 
**It  depends  upon  myself." 

In  the  Galerie  des  Beaux  Arts  in  Paris 
there  stands  a  famous  statue.  It  was  the 
last  work  of  a  great  genius,  who,  like 
many  a  genius,  was  very  poor  and  lived 
in  a  garret,  which  served  as  studio  and 
sleeping-room   alike.      When   the  statue 


212  THK  CHANGED   IJFE. 

was  all  but  finished,  one  midnight  a 
sudden  frost  fell  upon  Paris.  The 
sculptor  lay  awake  in  the  fireless  room  and 
thought  of  the  still  moist  clay,  thought 
hov/  the  water  would  freeze  in  the  pores 
and  destroy  in  an  hour  the  dream  of 
his  life.  So  the  old  man  rose  from  his 
couch  and  heaped  the  bed-clothes  rever- 
ently round  his  work.  In  the  morning 
wlien  the  neighbors  entered  the  room 
the  sculptor  v/as  dead.  But  the  statue 
lived. 

The  Image  of  Christ  that  is  forming 
within  us — that  is  life.^s  one  charge.  Let 
every  project  stand  aside  for  that.  *'Till 
Christ  be  formed,"  no  man's  work  is  fin- 
ished, no  religion  crowned,  no  life  has 
fulfilled  its  end.  Is .  the  infinite  task  be- 
gun ?     Wlien,   how,   are  we  to  be  differ- 


THE  FIRST  EXPERIMENT, 


213 


ent  ?  Time  cannot  change  men.  Death 
cannot  change  men.  Christ  can.  Where- 
fore put  on  Christ, 


"FIRST!" 
A  Talk  with  Boys. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


^^^NE  Sunday  afternoon  there  assem- 
^^  bled  at  the  City  Hall,  Glasgow, 
Scotland,  the  Boy^s  Brigade,  fourteen 
hundred  strong,  in  the  presence  of  an  in- 
terested audience.  Professor  Drummond 
ascended  the  platform,  and  after  prayer 
had  been  offered,  and  several  hymns  had 
been  sung,  requested  the  members  to 
turn  to  the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew 
and  read  in  unison  the  verse,  **But  seek 
ye  first  the   kingdom  of  God,  and   His 


2l8  INTRODUCTORY. 


righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you/*  Afterwards,  al) 
being  seated,  Professor  Drummond  pro- 
ceeded with  his  address. 


"FIRSXr 


T   HAVE  three  heads  to  give  you     The 
first  is   **  Geography,*'  the  second  is 
**  Arithmetic,**  and  the  third  is  **  Gram- 
mar.'* 

Geography. 

First.  Geography  tells  us  where  to 
find  places.  Where  is  the  kingdom  of 
God?  It  is  said  that  when  a  Prussian 
officer  was  killed  in  the  Franco-Prussian 
war,  a  map  of  France  was  very  often 
found  in  his  pocket.  When  we  wish  to 
occupy  a  country,  we  ought  to  know  its 

15  S19 


220  **  FIRST  P' 


geography.  Now,  where  is  the  kingdom 
of  God?  A  boy  over  there  says,  **It  is 
in  heaven.  No ;  it  is  not  in  heaven. 
Another  boy  says,  **It  is  in  the  Bible." 
No  ;  it  is  not  in  the  Bible.  Another  boy 
says,  *^  It  must  be  in  the  Church."  No; 
it  is  not  in  the  Church.  Heaven  is  only 
the  capital  of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  the 
Bible  is  the  Guide-book  to  it;  the  Church 
is  the  weekly  Parade  of  those  who  belong 
to  it.  If  you  would  turn  to  the  seven- 
teenth chapter  of  St.  Luke  you  will  find 
out  where  the  kingdom  of  God  really  is. 
*'  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you" — 
within  you.  The  kingdom  of  God  is 
inside  people. 

I  remember  once  taking  a  walk  by  the 
river  near  where  the  Falls  of  Niagara 
are,  and   I   noticed   a   remarkable   figure 


GEOGRAPHY.  221 


walking  along  the  river  bank.  I  liad 
been  some  time  in  America.  I  bad  seen 
black  men,  and  red  men,  and  yellow 
men,  and  white  men;  black  men,  the  Ne- 
groes; red  men,  the  Indians;  yellow  men^ 
the  Chinese;  white  men,  the  Americans. 
But  this  man  looked  quite  different  in  his 
dress  from  anything  I  had  ever  seen. 
When  he  came  a  little  closer,  I  saw  he 
was  wearing  a  kilt;  when  he  came  a  little 
nearer  still,  I  saw  that  he  was  dressed 
exactly  like  a  Highland  soldier.  When 
he  came  quite  near,  I  said  to  him,  * '  What 
are  you  doing  here?'*  **Why  should  I 
not  be  here?"  he  said.  ''Don't  you  know 
this  is  British  soil  ?  When  you  cross  the 
river  you  come  into  Canada. ' '  This  sol- 
dier was  thousands  of  miles  from  Eng- 
land, and  yet  he  was  in  the  kingdom  of 


222  **  FIRST  I" 

England.  Wherever  there  is  an  Eng- 
lish heart  beating  loyal  to  the  Queen  of 
Britain,  there  is  England,  Wherever 
there  is  a  boy  whose  heart  is  loyal  to  the 
King  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  within  him. 

What  is  the  kingdom  of  God  ?  Every 
kingdom  has  its  exports,  its  products. 
Go  down  to  the  river  here,  and  you 
will  find  ships  coming  in  with  cotton ; 
you  know  they  come  from  America. 
You  will  find  ships  with  tea;  you  know 
they  are  from  China.  Ships  with  wool ; 
you  know  they  come  from  Australia. 
Ships  with  sugar;  you  know  they  come 
from  Java.  What  comes  from  the  king- 
dom of  God?  Again  we  must  refer  to  our 
Guide  book.  Turn  to  Romans,  and  we 
shall  find  what  the  kingdom  of  God  is 


GEOGRAPHY.  223 

I  will  read  it:  "The  kingdom  of  God 
is  righteousness,  peace,  joy  *'— three 
tilings.  **The  kingdom  of  God  is  right- 
eousness, peace,  joy.'*  Righteousness, 
of  course,  is  just  doing  what  is  right. 
Any  boy  who  does  what  is  right  has 
the  kingdom  of  God  within  him.  Any 
boy  who,  instead  of  being  quarrelsome, 
lives  at  peace  with  the  other  boys,  has 
the  kingdom  of  God  within  him.  Any 
boy  whose  heart  is  filled  with  joy  be- 
cause he  does  what  is  right,  has  the 
kingdom  of  God  within  him.  The 
kingdom  of  God  is  not  going  to  relig- 
ious meetings,  and  hearing  strange  relig- 
ious experiences:  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  doing  what  is  right — living  at  peace 
with  all  men,  being  filled  with  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost. 


3824  **  first!" 


Boys,  if  you  are  going  to  be  Chris- 
tians, be  Christians  as  boys,  and  not  as 
your  grandmothers.  A  grandmother  has 
to  be  a  Christian  as  a  grandmother,  and 
that  is  the  right  and  the  beautiful  thing 
for  her;  but  if  you  cannot  read  your 
Bible  by  the  hour  as  your  grandmothei 
can,  or  delight  in  meetings  as  she  can, 
don't  think  you  are  necessarily  a  bad 
boy.  When  you  are  your  grandmother's 
age  you  will  have  your  grandmother's 
kind  of  religion.  Meantime,  be  a  Chris- 
tian as  a  boy.  I^ive  a  boy's  life.  Do 
the  straight  thing;  seek  the  kingdom 
of  righteousness  and  honor  and  truth. 
Keep  the  peace  with  the  boys  about  you, 
and  be  filled  with  the  joy  of  being  ? 
loyal,  and  simple,  and  natural,  and  boy- 
like servant  of  Christ. 


GEOGRAPHY.  225 


You  can  very  easily  tell  a  house,  or 
a  workshop,  or  an  office  where  the  king- 
dom of  God  is  noU  The  first  thing  you 
see  in  that  place  is  that  the  "straight 
thing"  is  not  always  done.  Customers 
do  not  get  fair  play.  You  are  in  danger 
of  learning  to  cheat  and  to  lie.  Better, 
a  thousand  times,  to  starve  than  to  stay 
in  a  place  where  you  cannot  do  what  is 
right. 

Or,  when  you  go  into  your  workshop, 
you  find  everybody  sulky,  touchy,  and  ill- 
tempered;  everybody  at  daggers*  drawn 
with  everybody  else ;  some  of  the  men 
not  on  speaking  terms  with  some  of  the 
others,  and  the  whole  feel  of  the  place 
miserable  and  unhappy.  The  kingdom 
of  God  is  not  there,  for  it  is  peace.     It  is 


226  **  FIRST  I" 


the  kingdom  of  the  Devil  that  is  anger 
and  wrath  and  malice. 

If  you  want  to  get  the  kingdom  of  God 
into  your  workshop,  or  into  your  home, 
let  the  quarrelling  be  stopped.  I^ive  in 
peace  and  harmony  and  brotherliness 
with  every  one.  For  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  a  kingdom  of  brothers.  It  is  a 
great  society,  founded  by  Jesus  Christ, 
of  all  the  people  who  try  to  be  like  Him, 
and  live  to  make  the  world  better  and 
sweeter  and  happier.  Wherever  a  boy  is 
trying  to  do  that,  in  the  house  or  in  the 
street,  in  the  workshop  or  on  the  baseball 
field,  there  is  the  kingdom  of  God.  And 
every  boy,  however  small  or  obscure  or 
poor,  who  is  seeking  that,  is  a  member 
of  it.  You  see  now,  I  hope,  what  the 
king-dom  is. 


ARITHMETIC.  327 


Arithmetic. 

I  pass,   therefore,   to  the  second  head : 
What  was  it  ?    *  *  Arithmetic. '  *    Are  there 
any  arithmetic  words  in  this  text?    ** Add- 
ed,** says  one  boy.      Quite  right,  added. 
What  other  arithmetic  word?     '* First. -^ 
Yes, T^r^^—*' first,"  "added.'*    Now,  don't 
you  think  you  could  not  have  anything 
better  to  seek  *^  first"  than  the  things  I 
have  named — to  do  what  is  right,  to  live 
at  peace,   and  be   always   making   those 
about  you  happy  ?     You  see  at  once  why 
Christ  tells  us  to  seek  these  things  first 
— ^because  they  are  the  best  worth  seek- 
ing.    Do  you  know  anything  better  than 
these    three    things,    anything    happier, 
purer,    nobler?      If  you   do,    seek   them 
first.     But  if  you  do  not,   seek  first  the 


228  **  FIRST  I" 


kingdom  of  God.  I  am  not  here  this 
afternoon  to  tell  you  to  be  religious.  You 
know  that.  I  am  not  here  to  tell  you  to 
seek  the  kingdom  of  God.  I  have  come 
to  tell  you  to  seek  the  kingdom  of  God 
first.  First,  Not  many  people  do  that. 
They  put  a  little  religion  into  their  life 
— once  a  week,  perhaps.  They  might 
just  as  well  let  it  alone.  It  is  not  worth 
seeking  the  kingdom  of  God  unless  we 
seek  it  first.  Suppose  you  take  the  helm 
out  of  a  ship  and  hang  it  over  the  bow, 
and  send  that  ship  to  sea,  will  it  ever 
reach  the  other  side?  Certainly  not. 
It  will  drift  about  anyhow.  Keep  religion 
in  its  place,  and  it  will  take  you  straight 
through  life,  and  straight  to  your  Father 
in  heaven  when  life  is  over.  But  if  you 
do  not  put  it  in  its  place,  you  may  just 


ARITHMETIC.  229 


as  well  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Re- 
ligion out  of  its  place  in  a  human  life  is 
the  most  miserable  thing  in  the  world. 
There  is  nothing  that  requires  so  much 
to  be  kept  in  its  place  as  religion,  and  its 
place  is  what  ?  second  ?  third  ?  *  *  First. '  * 
Boys,  carry  that  home  with  you  to-day — 
first  the  kingdom  of  God.  Make  it  so 
that  it  will  be  natural  to  you  to  think 
about  that  the  very  first  thing. 

There  was  a  boy  in  Glasgow  appren- 
ticed to  a  gentleman  who  made  tele- 
graphs. The  gentleman  told  me  this 
himself.  One  day  this  boy  was  up  on 
the  top  of  a  four-story  house  with  a 
number  of  men  fixing  up  a  telegraph- 
wire.  The  work  was  all  but  done.  It 
was  getting  late,  and  the  men  said  they 
were  going  away  home,  and  the  hov  was 


230  **  FIRST  r* 

to  nip  off  the  ends  of  the  wire  himself. 
Before  going  down  they  told  him  to  be 
sure  to  go  back  to  the  workshop,  when 
he  was  finished,  with  his  master's  tools. 
*'Do  not  leave  any  of  them  lying  about, 
whatever  you  do,"  said  the  foreman. 
The  boy  climbed  up  the  pole  and  began 
to  nip  off  the  ends  of  the  wire.  It  was 
a  very  cold  winter  night,  and  the  dusk 
was  gathering.  He  lost  his  hold  and  fell 
upon  the  slates,  slid  down,  and  then 
over  and  over  to  the  ground  below. 
A  clothes-rope,  stretched  across  the 
** green''  on  to  which  he  was  just  about 
to  fall,  caught  him  on  the  chest  and 
broke  his  fall ;  but  the  shock  was  terri- 
ble, and  he  lay  unconscious  among  some 
clothes  upon  the  green.  An  old  woman 
came  out ;   seeing  her   rope   broken   and 


ARITHMETIC.  231 

the  clothes  all  soiled,  thought  the  boy 
was  drunk,  shook  him,  scolded  him,  and 
went  for  the  policeman.  And  the  boy 
with  the  shaking  came  back  to  conscious- 
ness, rubbed  his  eyes,  and  got  upon  his 
feet.  What  do  you  think  he  did?  He 
staggered,  half  blind,  away  up  the  stairs. 
He  climbed  the  ladder.  He  got  on  to 
the  roof  of  the  house.  He  gathered  up 
his  tools,  put  them  into  his  basket,  took 
them  down,  and  when  he  got  to  the 
ground  again,  fainted  dead  away.  Just 
then  the  policeman  came,  saw  there  was 
something  seriously  wrong,  and  earned 
him  away  to  the  hospital,  where  he  lay 
for  some  time.  I  am  glad  to  say  he  got 
better.  What  was  his  first  thought  at 
that  terrible  moment?  His  duty.  He 
was  not    thinking  of   himself;    he   was 


232  **  FIRST  I'' 

thinking  about  his  master.      First,  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

But  there  is  another  arithmetic  word. 
What  is  it?  *^\dded."  There  is  not 
one  boy  here  who  does  not  know  the  dif- 
ference between  addition  and  subtraction. 
Now,  that  is  a  very  important  difference 
in  religion,  because — and  it  is  a  very 
strange  thing — very  few  people  know 
the  difference  when  they  begin  to  talk 
about  religion.  They  often  tell  boys  that 
if  they  seek  the  kingdom  of  God,  every- 
thing elsfi  is  going  to  be  subtracted  from 
them.  They  tell  them  that  they  are 
going  to  become  gloomy,  miserable,  and 
will  lose  everything  that  makes  a  boy's 
life  worth  living — that  they  will  have  to 
stop  baseball  and  story-books,  and  be- 
come little  old  men,  and  spend  all  their 


ARITHMETIC.  233 

time  in  going  to  meetings  and  in  singing 
hymns.  Now,  that  is  not  true.  Christ 
never  said  anything  like  that.  Christ  says 
we  are  to  ^ '  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God, ' ' 
and  everything  else  worth  having  is  to  be 
added  unto  us.  If  there  is  anything  I  would 
like  you  to  take  away  with  you  this  after- 
noon, it  is  these  two  arithmetic  words — 
**  first  *^  and  ^ '  added.  ^'  I  do  not  mean 
by  added  that  if  you  become  religious 
you  are  all  going  to  become  rich.  Here 
is  a  boy,  who,  in  sweeping  out  the  shop 
to-morrow  morning,  finds  sixpence  lying 
among  the  orange-boxes.  Well,  nobody 
has  missed  it.  He  puts  it  in  his  pocket, 
and  it  begins  to  burn  a  hole  there.  By 
breakfast-time  he  wishes  that  sixpence 
were  in  his  master's  pocket.  And  by 
and  by  he  goes  to  his  master.     He  sa3^ 


234  ''first!*' 


(to  himself^  and  not  to  liis  master),  *'  I  was 
at  the  Boys'  Brigade  yesterday,  and  I  was 
to  seeky^r^^  that  which  was  right. '  *  Then 
he  says  to  his  master,  ' '  Please,  sir,  here 
is  sixpence  that  I  found  upon  the  floor. '  * 
The  master  puts  it  in  the  ''till.''  What 
has  the  boy  got  in  his  pocket  ?  Nothing ; 
but  he  has  got  the  kingdom  of  God  in  his 
heart.  He  has  laid  up  treasure  in  heaven, 
which  is  of  infinitely  more  worth  than  six- 
pence. Now,  that  boy  does  not  find  a 
shilling  on  his  way  home.  I  have  known 
that  happen,  but  that  is  not  what  is  meant 
by  ' '  adding. ' '  It  does  not  mean  that  God 
is  going  to  pay  him  in  his  own  coin,  for 
He  pays  in  better  coin. 

Yet  I  remember  once  hearing  9f  a  boy 
who  was  paid  in  both  ways.  He  was 
very,  very  poor.     He  lived  in  a  foreign 


ARITHMETIC.  235 


country,  and  his  motlier  said  to  him  one 

day  that  he  must  go  into  the  great  city 

and  start  in  business,  and  she  took  his 

coat  and  cut  it  open  and  sewed  between 

the  lining    ^d    the    coat    forty  golden 

dinars,  which  she  had  saved  up  for  many 

years  to  start  him  in  life.     She  told  him 

to  take  care  of  robbers  as  he  went  across 

the  desert ;  and  as  he  was  going  out  of 

the  door  she  said  :  ^*  My  boy,  I  have  only 

two  words  for  you — *  Fear  God,  and  never 

tell  a  lie.* ''      The  boy  started  off,   and 

toward  evening  he  saw  glittering  in  the 

distance  the  minarets  of  the  great  city, 

but  between  the  city  and  himself  he  saw 

a  cloud  of  dust,  it  came  nearer ;  presently 

he  saw  that  it  was  a  band   of  robbers. 

One  of  the  robbers  left  the  rest  and  rode 

toward  him,  and  said:  **Boy,  what  have 
16 


236  *' first!" 


you  got?"  And  the  boy  looked  him  in 
the  face  and  said:  "I  have  forty  golden 
dinars  sewed  up  in  my  coat. ' '  And  the 
robber  laughed  and  wheeled  round  his 
horse  and  went  away  back.  He  would 
not  believe  the  boy.  Presently  another 
robber  came,  and  he  said:  "  Boy,  _  what 
have  you  got?"  *' Forty  golden  dinars 
sewed  up  in  my  coat."  *' The  robber 
said  :  ^ '  The  boy  is  a  fool, ' '  and  wheeled 
his  horse  and  rode  away  back.  By  and 
by  the  robber  captain  came,  and  he  said : 
*'Boy,  what  have  you  got?""  ^'I  have 
forty  golden  dinars  sewed  up  in  my  coat. ' ' 
And  the  robber  dismounted  and  put  his 
hand  over  the  boy's  breast,  felt  some- 
thing round,  counted  one,  two,  three, 
four,  j&ve,  till  he  counted  out  the  forty 
golden  coins.     He  looked  the  boy  in  the 


ARITHMETIC.  2^7 

face,  and  said:  **Wliy  did  you  tell  me 
that  ?' '  The  boy  said :  ' '  Because  of  God 
and  my  mother/'  And  the  robber  leaned 
on  his  spear  and  thought,  and  said : 
''Wait  a  moment."  He  mounted  his 
horse,  rode  back  to  the  rest  of  the  rob- 
bers, and  came  back  in  about  five  min- 
utes with  his  dress  changed.  This  time 
he  looked  not  like  a  robber,  but  like  a 
merchant.  He  took  the  boy  up  on  his 
horse  and  said:  "My  boy,  I  have  long 
wanted  to  do  something  for  my  God  and 
for  my  mother,  and  I  have  this  moment 
renounced  my  robber's  life.  I  am  also 
a  merchant.  I  have  a  large  business 
house  in  the  city.  I  want  you  to  come 
and  live  with  me,  to  teach  me  about  your 
God ;  and  you  will  be  rich,  and  your 
mother  some  day  will  come  and  live  with 


238  **  first!** 


tis/*  And  it  all  happened.  By  seeking 
first  the  kingdom  of  God,  all  these  things 
were  added  unto  him. 

Boys,  banish  for  ever  from  your  minds 
the  idea  that  religion  is  subtraction.  It 
does  not  tell  us  to  give  things  up,  but 
rather  gives  us  something  so  much  bet- 
ter that  they  give  themselves  up.  When 
you  see  a  boy  on  the  street  whipping  a 
top,  you  know,  perhaps,  that  you  could 
not  make  that  boy  happier  than  by  giv- 
ing him  a  top,  a  whip,  and  half  an  hour 
to  whip  it.  But  next  birthday,  when  he 
looks  back,  he  says,  ''What  a  goose  I 
was  last  year  to  be  delighted  with  a 
top ;  what  I  want  now  is  a  baseball  bat.'* 
Then  when"  he  becomes  an  old  man  he 
does  not  care  in  the  least  for  a  baseball 
bat    he  wants  rest,  and  a  snug  fireside^ 


ARITHMETIC.  239 

and  a  newspaper  every  day.  He  won- 
ders how  lie  could  ever  have  taken  up 
his  thoughts  with  baseball  bats  and 
whipping-tops.  Now,  when  a  boy  be- 
comes a  Christian,  he  grows  out  of  the 
evil  things  one  b}^  one — that  is  to  say, 
if  they  are  really  evil — which  he  used 
to  set  his  heart  upon  (of  course  I  do 
not  mean  baseball  bats,  for  they  are 
not  evils) ;  and  so  instead  of  telling 
people  to  give  up  things,  we  are  safer 
to  tell  them  to  *'seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God,''  and  then  they  will  get  new 
things  and  better  things,  and  the  old 
things  will  drop  off  of  themselves.  This 
is  what  is  meant  by  the  '*new  heart." 
It  means  that  God  puts  into  us  new ; 
thoughts  and  new  wishes,  and  we  be- 
come quite  different  boys. 


240  **  FIRST  P' 


Grammar. 
Lastly,  and  very  shortly.  What  was 
the  third  head?  '' Grammar. "  Right: 
Grammar.  Now,  I  require  a  clever  boy 
to  answer  the  next  question.  What  is 
the  verb?  '^Seek.*^  Very  good: 
**Seek.'V  What  mood  is  it  in?  '^ Im- 
perative mood.'*  What  does  that  mean? 
'*  Command.**  You  boys  of  the  Boys* 
Brigade  know  what  commands  are. 
What  is  the  soldier's  first  lesson? 
*' Obedience."  Have  you  obeyed  this 
command?  Remember  the  imperative 
mood  of  these  words,  ''''Seek  first  the 
kingdom  of  God."  This  is  the  com- 
mand of  your  King.  It  must  be  done. 
I  have  been  trying  to  show  you  what  a 
splendid  thing  it  is ;  what  a  reasonable 
thing   it  is;  what  a  happy  thing  it   is; 


GRAMMAR.  24 1 


but  beyond  all  these  reasons  it  is  a  thing 
that  7nust  be  done,  because  we  are  com- 
manded to  do  it  by  our  Captain.  It  is 
one  of  the  finest  things  about  the  Boys' 
Brigade  that  it  always  appeals  to  Christ 
as  its  highest  Officer,  and  takes  its  com- 
mands from  Him.  Now,  there  is  His 
command  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God  Have  you  done  it?  "Well,"  I 
know  some  boys  will  say,  "we  are 
going  to  have  a  good  time^  enjoy  life, 
and  then  we  are  going  to  seek — last — 
the  kingdom  of  God."  Now  that  is 
mean ;  it  is  nothing  else  than  mean  for 
a  boy  to  take  all  the  good  gifts  that 
God  has  given  him,  and  then  give  Him 
nothing  back  in  return  but  his  wasted 
life. 

God  wants   boys'  lives^  not  only  theii 


243  ^^FIRSO'P 


souls.  It  is  for  active  service  soldiers  are 
drilled  and  trained  and  fed  and  armed. 
That  is  why  you  and  I  are  in  the  world  at 
all — not  to  prepare  to  go  out  of  it  some 
day ;  but  to  serve  God  actively  in  it  now. 
It  is  monstrous  and  shameful  and  cow- 
ardly to  talk  of  seeking  the  kingdom  lasU 
It  is  shirking  duty,  abandoning  one's 
rightful  post,  playing  into  the  enemy's 
hand  by  doing  nothing  to  turn  his  flank. 
Every  hour  a  kingdom  is  coming  in  your 
heart,  in  your  home,  in  the  world  near 
you,  be  it  a  kingdom  of  darkness  or  a 
kingdom  of  light.  You  are  placed 
where  you  are,  in  a  particular  business, 
in  a  particular  street,  to  help  on  there  the 
kingdom  of  God.  You  cannot  do  that 
when  you  are  old  and  ready  to  die.  By 
that    time    your    companions   will    have 


GRAMMAR.  243 


fought  their  fight,  and  lost  or  won.  If 
they  lose,  will  you  not  be  sorry  that  you 
did  not  help  them?  Will  you  not  regret 
that  only  at  the  last  you  helped  the  king- 
dom of  God?  Perhaps  you  will  not  be 
able  to  do  it  then.  And  then  your  life 
has  been  lost  indeed. 

Very  few  people  have  the  opportunity 
to  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  at  the  end. 
Christ,  knowing  all  that,  knowing  that 
religion  was  a  thing  for  our  life,  not 
merely  for  our  death-bed,  has  laid  this 
command  upon  us  now:  "  Seek  yfrj/ the 
kingdom  of  God.*^  I  am  going  to  leave 
you  with  this  text  itself.  Every  Brigade 
boy  in  the  world  should  obey  it. 

Boys,  before  you  go  to  work  to-morrow, 
before  you  go  to  sleep  to-night,  before 
you  go  to  the  Sunday-school   this  after- 


244  **  FIRST  r' 

noon,  before  you  go  out  of  tlie  door  of 
the  City  Hall,  resolve  that,  God  helping 
you,  you  are  going  to  s^t^  first  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Perhaps  some  boys  here 
are  deserters ;  they  began  once  before  to 
serve  Christ,  and  they  deserted.  Come 
back  again,  come  back  again  to-day. 
Others  have  never  enlisted  at  all.  Will 
you  not  do  it  now  ?  You  are  old  enough 
to  decide.  And  the  grandest  moment  of 
a  boy's  life  is  that  moment  when  he 
decides  to 

Seek  prat  tl|e  ^ingbom  of  ®ob* 


HOW  TO   LEy\RN   HOW. 

i.  Dealing  with  Doubt. 
n.  Preparation  for  Learning. 


DEALING  WITH    DOUBT. 


'T^HERB  is  a  subject  which  I  think 
we  as  workers  amongst  young  men 
cannot  afford  to  keep  out  of  sight — I 
mean  the  subject  of  ''Doubt."  We  are 
forced  to  face  that  subject.  We  have  no 
choice.  I  would  rather  let  it  alone ;  but 
every  day  of  my  life  I  meet  men  who 
doubt,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  most  of 
you  have  innumerable  interviews  ever> 
year  with  men  who  raise  skeptical  dif- 
ficulties about  religion.  Now,  it  becomes 
a  matter  of  great  practical  importance 
that  we  should  know  how  to  deal  wisely 

247 


248  DEALING  WITH   DOUBT. 

with  these  men.  Upon  the  whole,  I 
think  these  are  the  best  men  in  the 
country.  I  speak  of  my  own  countr}\ 
I  speak  of  the  universities  with  which 
I  am  familiar,  and  I  say  that  the  men 
who  are  perplexed — the  men  who  come 
to  you  with  serious  and  honest  difficulties 
— are  the  best  men.  They  are  men  of 
intellectual  honesty,  and  cannot  allow 
themselves  to  be  put  to  rest  by  words, 
or  phrases,  or  traditions,  or  theologies, 
but  who  must  get  to  the  bottom  of  things 
for  themselves.  And  if  I  am  not  mis- 
taken, Christ  was  very  fond  of  these 
men.  The  outsiders  always  interested 
Him,  and  touched  Him.  The  orthodox 
people — the  Pharisees — He  was  much 
less  interested  in.  He  went  with  pub- 
licans and  sinners — with  people  who  were 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  249 

in  revolt  against  the  respectability,  in- 
te!lectual  and  religious,  of  the  day.  And 
following  Him,  we  are  entitled  to  give 
sympathetic  consideration  to  those  whom 
He  loved  and  took  trouble  with. 

First,  let  me  speak  for  a  moment  01 
two  about  the  origin  of  doubt.  In  the 
first  place,  we  are  born  questioners. 
Look  at  the  wonderment  of  a  little  child 
in  its  eyes  before  it  can  speak.  The 
child's  great  word  when  it  begins  to 
speak  is,  '^Why?"  Every  child  is  full 
of  every  kind  of  question,  about  every 
kind  of  thing  that  moves,  and  shines, 
and  changes,  in  the  little  world  in  which 
it  livCvS.  That  is  the  incipient  doubt  in 
the  nature  of  man.  Respect  doubt  for 
its  origin.  It  is  an  inevitable  thing. 
It  is  not  a  thing  to  be  crushed.     It  is  a 


250  DEALING  WITH   DOUBT. 

part  of  man  as  God  made  him.  Heresy 
is  trutli  in  the  making,  and  doubt  is  the 
prelude  of  knowledge. 

Secondly:  The  world  is  a'Sphinx.  It 
is  a  vast  riddle — an  unfathomable  m}'s- 
tery ;  and  on  every  side  there  is  tempta- 
tion to  questioning.  In  every  leaf,  in 
every  cell  of  every  leaf,  there  are  a 
hundred  problems.  There  are  ten  good 
years  of  a  man's  life  in  investigating 
what  is  in  a  leaf,  and  there  are  five  good 
years  more  in  investigating  the  things 
that  are  in  the  things  that  are  in  the 
leaf  God  has  planned  the  world  to  in- 
cite men  to  intellectual  activity. 

Thirdly :  The  instrument  with  which 
we  attempt  to  investigate  truth  is  im- 
paired. Some  say  it  fell,  and  the  glass 
is  broken.     Some  say   prejudice,    hered- 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  25 1 

ity,  or  sin^  have  spoiled  its  sight,  and 
have  blinded  our  eyes  and  deadened  our 
ears.  In  any  case  the  instruments  with 
which  we  work  upon  truth,  even  in  the 
strongest  men,  are  feeble  and  inadequate 
to  their  tremendous  task. 

And  in  the  fourth  place,  all  religious 
truths  are  doubtable.  There  is  no  ab- 
solute proof  for  any  one  of  them.  Even 
that  fundamental  truth — the  existence  of 
a  God  —  no  man  can  prove  by  reason. 
The  ordinary'  proof  for  the  existence  of 
God  involves  either  an  assumption,  argu- 
ment in  a  circle,  or  a  contradiction.  The 
impression  of  God  is  kept  up  by  expe- 
rience ;  not  by  logic.  And  hence,  when 
the  experimental  religion  of  a  man,  of  a 
community,  or  of  a  nation,  wanes,  re- 
ligion wanes — their  idea  of  God  grows 
17 


252  DEAUNG  WITH   DOUBT. 


indistinct,  and  that  man,  community  ox 
nation  becomes  infidel.  Bear  in  mind, 
then,  that  all  religious  truths  are  doubt- 
able— even  those  which  we  hold  most 
strongly. 

What  does  this  brief  account  of  the 
origin  of  doubt  teach  us?  It  teaches 
us  great  intellectual  humility.  It  teaches 
us  sympathy  and  toleration  with  all  men 
who  venture  upon  the  ocean  of  truth  to 
find  out  a  path  through  it  for  themselves. 
Do  you  sometimes  feel  yourself  thinking 
unkind  things  about  your  fellow-students 
who  have  intellectual  difficulty?  I  know 
how  hard  it  is  always  to  feel  sympathy 
and  toleration  for  them ;  but  we  must 
address  ourselves  to  that  most  carefully 
and  most  religiously.  If  my  brother  is 
short-sighted,   I  must   not   abuse  him  oi 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  253 


Speak  against  him ;  I  must  pity  him, 
and  if  possible  try  to  improve  his  sight 
or  to  make  things  that  he  is  to  look  at 
so  bright  that  he  cannot  help  seeing. 
But  never  let  us  think  evil  of  men  who 
do  not  see  as  we  do.  From  the  bottom 
of  our  hearts  let  us  pity  them,  and  let 
us  take  them  by  the  hand  and  spend 
time  and  thought  over  them,  and  tr>^  to 
lead  them  to  the  true  light. 

What  has  been  the  Church's  treatment 
of  doubt  in  the  past?  It  has  been  very 
simple.  **  There  is  a  heretic.  Bum 
him!"  That  is  all.  "There  is  a  man 
who  has  gone  off  the  road.  Bring  him 
back  and  torture  him !' '  We  have  got 
past  that  physically;  have  we  got  past 
it  morally?  What  does  the  moderu 
Church  say  to  a  man  who  is  skeptical  ? 


254  DKAI.ING  WITH   DOUBT. 

Not  ''Burn  him!"  but  ''Brand  himP' 
*' Brand  him! — call  him  a  bad  name." 
And  in  many  countries  at  the  present 
time  a  man  who  is  branded  as  a  heretic 
is  despised,  tabooed,  and  put  out  of  re- 
ligious society,  much  more  than  if  he 
had  gone  wrong  in  morals.  I  think  I 
am  speaking  within  the  facts  when  I  say 
that  a  man  who  is  unsound  is  looked 
upon  in  many  communities  with  more 
suspicion  and  with  more  pious  horror 
than  a  man  who  now  and  then  gets 
drunk.  "Burn  him!"  "Brand  him!" 
"  Excommunicate  him  1"  That  has  been 
the  Church's  treatment  of  doubt,  and 
that  is  perhaps  to  some  extent  the  treat- 
ment which  we  ourselves  are  inclined  to 
give  to  the  men  who  cannot  see  the 
truths   of  Christianity  as   we   see   them. 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  255 

Contrast  Christ's  treatment  of  doubt.  1 
have  spoken  already  of  His  strange  par- 
tiality for  the  outsiders — for  the  scattered 
heretics  up  and  down  the  country ;  of  the 
care  with  which  He  loved  to  deal  with 
them,  and  of  the  respect  in  which  He 
held  their  intellectual  difficulties.  Christ 
never  failed  to  distinguish  between  doubt 
and  unbelief.  Doubt  is  canH  believe  ;  un- 
belief is  won't  believe.  Doubt  is  hon- 
esty ;  unbelief  is  obstinacy.  Doubt  is 
looking  for  light ;  unbelief  is  content 
with  darkness.  Loving  darkness  rather 
than  light — that  is  what  Christ  attacked, 
and  attacked  unsparingly.  But  for  the 
intellectual  questioning  of  Thomas,  and 
Philip,  and  Nicodemus,  and  the  many 
others  who  came  to  Him  to   have  theii 


256  DEALING  WITH   DOUBT. 

great  problems  solved,   He  was  respect- 
ful and  generous  and  tolerant. 

And  how  did  He  meet  their  doubts? 
The  Church,  as  I  have  said,  says,  **  Brand 
him!"  Christ  said,  "Teach  him."  He 
destroyed  by  fulfilling.  When  Thomas 
came  to  Him  and  denied  His  ver>^  res- 
urrection, and  stood  before  Him  waiting 
for  the  scathing  words  and  lashing  for  his 
unbelief,  they  never  came.  They  never 
came.  Christ  gave  him  facts — facts.  No 
man  can  go  around  facts.  Christ  said, 
"  Behold  My  hands  and  My  feet."  The 
great  god  of  science  at  the  present  time 
is  a  fact.  It  works  with  facts.  Its  cry 
is,  "Give  me  facts."  Found  anything 
you  like  upon  facts  and  we  will  believe 
it.  The  spirit  of  Christ  was  the  scientific , 
spirit.      He   founded   His   religion   upon 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  257 

facts ;  and  He  asked  all  men  to  found 
their  religion  upon  facts.  Now,  gentle* 
men,  get  up  the  facts  of  Christianity,  and 
take  men  to  the  facts.  Theologies — and 
I  am  not  speaking  disrespectfully  of  the- 
ology ;  theology  is  as  scientific  a  thing 
as  any  other  science  of  facts — but  the- 
ologies are  human  versions  of  Divine 
truths,  and  hence  the  varieties  of  the 
versions,  and  the  inconsistences  of  them. 
I  would  allow  a  man  to  select  whichever 
version  of  this  truth  he  liked  after" 
wards;  but  I  would  ask  him  to  begin 
with  no  version,  but  go  back  to  the 
facts  and  base  his  Christian  life  upon 
that.  That  is  the  great  lesson  of  the 
New  Testament  way  of  looking  at  doubt 
— of  Christ's  treatment  of  doubt.  It  is 
not  *^  Brand  him  !'* — but  lovingly,  wisely, 


258  DEJALING   WITH   DOUBT. 

and  tenderly  to  teach  him.  Faith  is 
never  opposed  to  reason  in  the  New 
Testament;  it  is  opposed  to  sight.  You 
will  find  that  a  principle  worth  thinking 
over.  Faith  is  never  opposed  to  reason 
in  the  New   Testainent^  but  to  sight. 

Well,  now ;  with  these  principles  in 
mind  as  to  the  origin  of  doubt,  and  as 
to  Christ's  treatment  of  it,  how  are  we 
ourselves  to  deal  with  our  fellow-students 
who  are  in  intellectual  difficulty?  In 
the  first  place,  I  think  we  must  make 
all  the  concessions  to  them  that  we  con- 
scientiously can.  When  a  doubter  first 
encounters  you  he  pours  out  a  deluge  of 
abuse  of  churches,  and  ministers,  and 
creeds,  and  Christians.  Nine-tenths  of 
what  he  says  is  probably  true.  Make 
concessions.     Agree   with  him.     It  does 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  259 

him  good  to  unburden  himself  of  these 
things.  He  has  been  cherishing  them 
for  years — laying  them  up  against  Chris- 
tians, against  the  Church,  and  against 
Christianity;  and  now  he  is  startled  to 
find  the  first  Christian  with  whom  he 
has  talked  over  the  thing  almost  entirely 
agrees  with  him.  We  are,  of  course,  not 
responsible  for  everythiug  that  is  said  in 
the  name  of  Christianity  ;  but  a  man  does 
not  give  up  medicine  because  there  are 
quack  doctors,  and  no  man  has  a  right 
to  give  up  his  Christianity  because  there 
are  spurious  or  inconsistent  Christians. 
Then,  as  I  have  already  said,  creeds  are 
human  versions  of  Divine  truths ;  and  we 
do  not  ask  a  man  to  accept  all  the 
creeds,  any  more  than  we  ask  him  to 
accept  all  the  Christians.     We  ask  him 


260  DEALING  WITH   DOUBT, 

to  accept  Christ,  and  the  facts  about 
Christ,  and  the  words  of  Christ.  But 
you  will  find  the  battle  is  half  won  when 
you  have  endorsed  the  man's  objections, 
and  possibly  added  a  great  many  more 
to  the  charges  which  he  has  against  our- 
selves. These  men  are  in  revolt  against 
the  kind  of  religion  which  we  exhibit  to 
the  v/orld — against  the  cant  that  is  taught 
in  the  name  of  Christianity.  And  if  the 
men  that  have  never  seen  the  real  thins^ 
— if  you  could  show  them  that,  they 
would  receive  it  as  eagerly  as  you  do. 
They  are  merely  in  revolt  against  the 
imperfections  and  inconsistencies  of  those 
who  represent  Christ  to  the  v/orld. 

Second :  Beg  them  to  set  aside,  by  an 
act  of  will,  all  unsolved  problems :  vSuch 
as  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil,  the 


DEALI^^G   WITH   DOUBT,  261 

problem  of  the  Trinity,  the  problem  of 
the  relation  of  human  will  and  predesti- 
nation, and  so  on — problems  which  have 
been  investigated  for  thousands  of  years 
without  result — ask  them  to  set  those 
problems  aside  as  insoluble  in  the  mean 
time,  just  as  a  man  who  is  studying 
mathematics  may  be  asked  to  set  aside 
the  problem,  of  squaring  the  circle.  Let 
him  go  on  with  what  can  be  done,  and 
Vv^hat  has  been  done,  and  leave  out  of 
sight  the  impossible.  You  will  find  that 
will  relieve  the  skeptic's  mind  of  a  great 
deal  of  unnecessary  cargo  that  has  been 
in  his  way. 

Thirdly :  Talking  al)OUt  difficulties,  as 
a  rule,  only  aggravates  them.  Entire 
satisfaction  to  the  intellect  is  unattain- 
able about  any  of  the  greater  problems, 


262  DEALING   WITH   DOUBT. 

and  if  you  try  to  get  to  the  bottom  of 
them  by  argument,   there  is   no  bottom 
there ;  and  therefore  you  make  the  matter 
worse.     But  I  would  say  what  is  known, 
and   what    can   be    honestly   and    philo- 
sophically  and    scientifically   said    about 
one   or   two   of  the   difficulties   that   the 
doubter   raises,   just   to    show    him    that 
you   can   do   it — to   shov/   him    that   you 
are  not  a  fool — that  you  are  not  merely 
groping   in    the   dark   yourself,    but   you 
have   found   whatever    basis   is   possible. 
But  I  would  not  go  around  all  the  doc- 
trines.    I  would  simply  do  that  with  one 
or  two ;  because  the  moment  you  cut  oflf 
one,  a  hundred  other  heads  will  grow  in 
its  place.      It  would  be  a  pity  if  all  these 
problems  could  be  solved.      The  joy  of 
the    intellectual    life    would    be    largely 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  263 

gone.  I  would  not  rob  a  man  of  his 
problems,  nor  would  I  have  another  man 
rob  me  of  my  problems.  They  are  the 
delight  of  life,  and  the  whole  intellectual 
world  would  Ije  stale  and  unprofitable  if 
we  knew  everything. 

Fourthly — and  this  is  the  great  point : 
Turn  away  from  the  reason,  and  go  into 
the  man's  moral  life.  I  don't  mean,  go 
into  his  moral  life  and  see  if  the  man  is 
living  in  conscious  sin,  which  is  the  great 
blinder  of  the  eyes — I  am  speaking  now 
of  honest  doubt ;  but  open  a  new  dooi 
into  the  practical  side  of  man's  nature. 
Entreat  him  not  to  postpone  life  and  his 
life's  usefulness  until  he  has  settled  the 
problems  of  the  universe.  Tell  him 
those  problems  will  never  all  be  settled ; 
that  his  life  will  be  done  before  he  has 


264  DEALING  WITH   DOUBT. 


begun  to  settle  them ;  and  ask  him  what 
he  is  doing  with  his  life  meantime. 
Charge  him  with  wasting  his  life  and 
his  usefulness ;  and  invite  him  to  deal 
with  the  moral  and  practical  difficulties 
of  the  world,  and  leave  t?.e  intellectual 
difficulties  as  he  goes  along.  To  spend 
time  upon  these  is  proving  the  less  im- 
portant before  the  more  important ;  and, 
as  the  French  say,  "The  good  is  the 
enemy  of  the  best. ' '  It  is  a  good  thing 
to  think  ;  it  is  a  better  thing  to  work — 
it  is  a  better  thing  to  do  good.  And  you 
have  him  there,  you  see.  He  can't  get 
beyond  that.  You  have  to  tell  him,  in 
fact,  that  there  are  two  organs  of  know- 
ledge:  the  one  reason,  the  other  obedi- 
ence. And  now  tell  him,  as  he  has  tried 
the  first  and  found  the  little  in  it,  just  foi 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  265 

a  moment  or  two  to  join  you  in  trying 
the  second.  And  when  he  asks  whom 
he  is  to  obey,  you  tell  him  there  is  but 
One,  and  lead  him  to  the  great  historical 
figure,  who  calls  all  men  to  Him :  the 
one  perfect  life — the  one  Saviour  of  man- 
kind— the  one  Light  of  the  world.  Ask 
him  to  begin  to  obey  Christ ;  and,  doing 
His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine 
whether  it  be  of  God. 

That,  I  think,  is  about  the  only  thing 
you  can  do  with  a  man :  to  get  him  into 
practical  contact  with  the  needs  of  the 
world,  and  to  let  him  lose  his  intellectual 
difficulties  meantime.  Don't  ask  him  to 
give  them  up  altogether.  Tell  him  to 
solve  them  afterward  one  by  one  if  he 
can,  but  meantime  to  give  his  life  to 
Christ  and  his  time  to  the  king^dom   of 


266  DEAUNG  WITH   DOUBT. 

God.  And,  you  see,  you  fetch  him  com- 
pletely around  when  you  do  that.  You 
have  taken  him  away  from  the  false  side 
of  his  nature,  and  to  the  practical  and 
moral  side  of  his  nature ;  and  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  perhaps,  he  puts 
things  in  their  true  place.  He  puts  his 
nature  in  the  relations  in  which  it  ought 
to  be,  and  he  then  only  begins  to  live. 
And  by  obedience — by  obedience — he  will 
soon  become  a  learner  and  pupil  for  him- 
self, and  Christ  will  teach  him  things, 
and  he  will  find  whatever  problems  are 
solvable  gradually  solved  as  he  goes  along 
the  path  of  practical  duty. 

Now,  let  me,  in  closing,  give  a  couple 
of  instances  of  how  to  deal  with  specific 
points.  The  commonest  thing  that  we 
hear  said   nowadays  by  young  men   is, 


DEAI^ING   WITH   DOUBT.  267 

* '  What  about  evolution  ?  How  am  I  to 
reconcile  my  religion,  or  any  religion, 
with  the  doctrine  of  evolution?"  That 
upsets  more  men  than  perhaps  anything 
else  at  the  present  hour.  How  would 
you  deal  with  it  ?  I  would  say  to  a  man 
that  Christianity  is  the  further  evolution. 
I  don't  know  any  better  definition  than 
that.  It  is  the  further  evolution  —  the 
higher  evolution.  I  don't  start  with  him 
to  attack  evolution.  I  don't  start  with 
him  to  defend  it.  I  destroy  by  fulfilling 
it.  I  take  him  at  his  own  terms.  He 
says  evolution  is  that  which  pushes  the 
man  on  from  the  simple  to  the  complex, 
from  the  lower  to  the  higher.  Very  well ; 
that  is  what  Christianity  does.  It  pushes 
the  man  farther  on.  It  takes  him  where 
nature  has  left  him,  and  carries  him  on 


268  DEALING  WITH   DOUBT. 

to  heights  which  on  the  plain  of  nature 
he  could  never  reach.  That  is  evolution. 
*'Lead  me  to  the  Rock  that  is  higher 
than  I."  That  is  evolution.  It  is  the 
development  of  the  whole  man  in  the 
highest  directions — the  drawing  out  of 
his  spiritual  being.  Show  an  evolution* 
ist  that,  and  you  have  taken  the  wind 
out  of  his  sails.  ' '  I  came  not  to  de- 
stroy." Don't  destroy  his  doctrine  — 
perhaps  you  can't — but  fulfil  it.  Put  a 
larger  meaning  into  it. 

The  other  instance — the  next  common- 
est question  perhaps — is  the  question  of 
miracles.  It  is  impossible,  of  course,  to 
discuss  that  now — miracles;  but  that 
question  is  thrown  at  my  head  every 
second  day:  ''What  do  you  say  to  a 
man   when  he    says   to    you,    *  Why  do 


DEALING  WITH   DOUBT.  269 


yoii  believe  in  miracles  ?'  "  I  say,  * '  Be- 
cause I  have  seen  them.''  He  says, 
^*When?"  I  say,  ^'Yesterday."  He 
says,  '  *  Where  ?"  ' '  Down  such-and-such 
a  street  I  sav/  a  man  who  was  a  drunk- 
ard redeeraed  by  the  power  of  an  unseen 
Christ  and  saved  from  sin.  That  is  a 
miracle.''  The  best  apologetic  for  Chris- 
tianity is  a  Christian.  That  is  a  fact 
which  the  man  cannot  get  over.  There 
are  fifty  other  arguments  for  miracles, 
but  none  so  good  as  that  you  have  seen 
them.  Perhaps  you  are  one  yoursel£ 
But  take  you  a  man  and  show  him  a 
miracle  with  his  own  eyes.  Then  he 
will  believe. 


PREPARATION  FOR  LEARNING. 


T)EFORK  an  artist  can  do  anything 
the  instrument  must  be  tuned.  Our 
astronomers  at  this  moment  are  preparing 
for  an  event  which  happens  only  once  or 
twice  in  a  lifetime :  the  total  eclipse  of 
the  sun  in  the  month  of  August.  They 
have  begun  already.  They  are  making 
preparations.  At  chosen  stations  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  world  they  are  spend- 
ing all  the  skill  that  science  can  suggest 
upon  the  construction  of  their  instru- 
ments; and  up  to  the  last  moment  they 

271 


272      PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING. 

will  be  busy  adjusting  them ;  and  the 
last  day  will  be  the  busiest  of  all,  be- 
cause then  they  must  have  the  glasses 
and  the  mirrors  polished  to  the  last  de- 
gree. The}^  have  to  have  the  lenses  in 
place  and  focused  upon  this  spot  before 
the  event  itself  takes  place. 

Everything  will  depend  upon  the  in- 
struments which  3^ou  bring  to  this  ex- 
periment. Everything  will  depend  upon 
it ;  and  therefore  fifteen  minutes  will  not 
be  lost  if  we  each  put  our  instrument 
into  the  best  working  order  we  can.  I 
have  spoken  of  lenses,  and  that  reminds 
me  that  the  instrument  which  we  bring 
to  bear  upon  truth  is  a  compound  thing. 
It  consists  of  many  parts.  Truth  is  not 
a  jToduct  of  the  intellect  alone;  it  is  a 
product  of  the  wliole  nature.     The  body 


PREPARATION   FOR  I.KARNING.      273 

is  engaged  in  it,  and  the  mind,  and  the 
soul. 

The  body  is  engaged  in  it.  Of  course, 
a  man  who  has  his  body  run  down,  or 
who  is  dyspeptic,  or  melancholy,  sees 
everything  black,  and  distorted,  and  un- 
true. But  I  am  not  going  to  dwell  upon 
that.  Most  of  you  seem  in  pretty  fair 
working  order  so  far  as  your  bodies  are 
concerned ;  only  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  we  are  to  give  our  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice — ^not  a  half-dead  sacrifice,  as 
some  people,  seem  to  imagine.  There  is 
no  virtue  in  emaciation.  I  don't  know 
if  you  have  any  tendency  in  that  direc- 
tion in  America,  but  certainly  we  are  i-n 
danger  of  dropping  into  it  now  and  th'en 
in  England,  and  it  is  just  as  well  to  beat 
in  mind  our  part  of  the  lens — a  very  com- 


274     PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING. 

pound  and  delicate  lens — with  which  we 
have  to  take  in  truth. 

Then  comes  a  very  important  part :  the 
intellect — which  is  one  of  the  most  use- 
ful servants  of  truth  ;  and  I  need  not  tell 
you  as  students,  that  the  intellect  will 
have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  your  recep- 
tion of  truth.  I  was  told  that  it  was  said 
at  these  conferences  last  year,  that  a  man 
must  crucify  his  intellect.  I  venture  to 
contradict  the  gentleman  who  made  that 
statement.  I  am  quite  sure  no  such  state- 
ment could  ever  have  been  made  in  your 
hearing — that  we  were  to  crucify  our  in- 
tellects. We  can  make  no  progress  with- 
out the  full  use  of  all  the  intellectual 
powers  that  God  has  endowed  us  with. 

But  more  important  than  either  of 
these  is  the  moral  nature — the  moral  and 


PREPARATION   FOR  LEARNING.      275 

spiiitual  nature.  Some  of  you  remembei 
a  sermon  of  Robertson  of  Brighton,  en- 
titled ''  Obedience  the  Organ  of  Spiritual 
Knowledge."  A  very  startling  title! — 
''Obedience  the  Organ  of  Spiritual 
Knowledge. ' '  The  Pharisees  asked  about 
Christ :  ' '  How  knoweth  this  man  letters, 
never  having  learned?''  How  knoweth 
this  man,  never  having  learned?  The 
organ  of  knowledge  is  not  nearly  so 
much  mind,  as  the  organ  that  Christ 
used,  namely,  obedience ;  and  that  was 
the  organ  which  He  Himself  insisted 
upon  when  He  said:  "He  that  willeth 
to  do  His  will  shall  know  of  the  doc- 
trine whether  it  be  of  G  od. ' '  You  have 
all  noticed,  of  course,  that  the  words  in 
the  original  are  :  "If  any  man  will  to  do 
His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine.*' 


376      PREPARATION    FOR   LEARNING. 

It  doesn't  read,  *'If  any  do  His  will,'' 
which  no  man  can  do  perfectly ;  but  if 
any  man  be  simply  willing  to  do  His  will 
— if  he  has  an  absolutely  undivided  mind 
about  it — that  man  vrill  know  what  tnith 
is  and  know  what  falsehood  is ;  a  stranger 
will  he  not  follow.  And  that  is  by  far 
the  best  source  of  spiritual  knowledge  on 
every  account — obedience  to  God — abso- 
lute sincerity  and  loyalty  in  following 
Christ.  ^'If  an}^  man  do  His  will  he 
shall  know'' — a  very  remarkable  ' asso- 
ciation of  knowledge,  a  thing  which  is 
usually  considered  quite  intellectual,  with 
obedience,  which  is  moral  and  spiritual. 
But  even  although  we  use  all  these 
three  different  parts  of  the  instrument, 
we  have  not  at  all  got  at  the  complete 
method   of  learning.      There  is  a  little 


PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING.       277 

preliminary  that  the  astronomer  has  to  do 
before  he  can  make  his  obser\^ation.  He 
has  to  take  the  cap  off  his  telescope. 
j^'lan}'  a  man  thinks  he  is  looking  at 
truth  when  he  is  only  looking  at  the  cap. 
Many  a  time  I  have  looked  down  my 
microscope,  and  thought  I  was  looking 
at  the  diatom  for  which  I  had  long  been 
searching,  and  found  I  had  simply  been 
looking  at  a  speck  of  dust  upon  the  lens 
itself.  Many  a  man  thinks  he  is  looking 
at  truth  when  he  is  only  looking  at  the 
spectacles  he  haa  put  on  to  see  it  with. 
He  is  looking  at  his  own  spectacles. 
Now,  the  common  spectacles  that  a  man 
puts  on — I  suppose  the  creed  in  which  he 
has  been  brought  up — if  a  man  looks  at 
that,  let  him  remember  that  he  is  not 
looking   at   truth  :   he   is   looking  at   his 


ZyS      PREPARATION    FOR    LEARNING. 

own  Spectacles.  There  is  no  more  im- 
portant lesson  that  we  have  to  carry  with 
us  than  that  truth  is  not  to  be  found  in 
what  I  have  been  taught.  That  is  not 
truth.  Truth  is  not  what  I  have  been 
taught.  If  it  were  so,  that  would  appl}^ 
to  the  Mormon,  it  would  apply  to  the 
Brahman,  it  would  apply  to  the  Buddhist. 
Truth  would  be  to  everybody  just  what 
he  had  been  taught.  Therefore  let  us 
dismiss  from  our  minds  the  predisposi- 
tion to  regard  that  which  we  have  been 
brought  up  in  as  being  necessarily  the 
truth.  I  must  say  it  is  ver)^  hard  to 
shake  one's  self  free  altogether  from  that. 
I  suppose  it  is  impossible. 

But  •  you  see  the  reasonableness  of  giv- 
ing up  that  as  your  view  of  truth  when 
you  come  to  apply  it  all  around.      If  that 


PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING.       279 

were  the  definition  of  truth,  truth  would 
be  just  what  one's  parents  were — it  would 
be  a  thing  of  hereditary  transmission,  and 
not  a  thing  absolute  in  itself  Now,  let 
me  venture  to  ask  you  to  take  that  cap 
ofif.  Take  that  cap  off  now,  and  make  up 
your  minds  you  are  going  to  look  at  truth 
naked — in  its  reality  as  it  is,  not  as  it  is 
reflected  through  other  minds,  or  through 
any  theology',  however  venerable. 

Then,  there  is  one  thing  1  think  we 
must  be  careful  about,  and  that  is  besides 
having  the  cap  off,  and  having  all  the 
lenses  clean  and  in  position — to  have  the 
instrument  rightly  focused.  Ever^'thing 
may  be  right,  and  yet  when  you  go  and 
look  at  the  object,  you  see  things  alto- 
gether falsely.  You  see  things  not  only 
blurred,  but  you  see  things  out  of  propor- 


28o      PREPAEATION   FOR   LEARNING. 

tion.  And  there  is  nothing  more  im- 
portant we  have  to  bear  in  mind  in  run- 
ning our  eye  over  successive  theological 
truths,  or  religious  truths,  than  that  there 
is  a  proportion  in  those  truths,  and  that 
we  must  see  them  in  their  proportion,  or 
we  see  them  falsely.  A  man  may  take  a 
dollar  or  a  half-dollar  and  hold  it  to  his 
eye  so  closely  that  he  will  hide  the  sun 
from  him.  Or  he  may  so  focus  his  tele- 
scope that  a  fly  or  a  boulder  may  be  as 
large  as  a  mountain.  A  man  may  hold  a 
certain  doctrine^  very  intensely — a  doc- 
trine which  has  been  looming  upon  his 
horizon  for  the  last  six  m.onths,  let  lis  say, 
and  which  has  thrown  ever^'thing  else  out 
of  proportion,  it  has  become  so  big  itself. 
Now,  let  us  beware  of  distortion  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  religious  truths  which 


PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING.       281 


we  liold.     It  is  almost  impossible  to  get 
things  in  their  true  proportion  and  sym- 
metry, but  this  is  the  thing  we  must  be 
constantly  aiming  at.     We  fere  told  in  the 
Bible  to  *'  add  to  your  faith  virtue,  and  to 
virtue  knowledge,  and  to  knowledge  bal- 
ance," as  the  word  literally  means — bal- 
ance.    It  is  a  word  taken  from  the  orches- 
tra, where  all  the  parts — the  sopranos,  the 
basses,  the  altos,  and  the  tenors,   and  all 
the   rest   of    them  —  must  be   regulated. 
If  you  have  too  much  of  the  bass,  or  too 
much  of  the  soprano,  there  is  want  of  har- 
mony.    That  is  what  I  mean  by  the  want 
of  proper  focus  —  by  the  want  of  proper 
balance — in  the  truths  which  we  all  hold. 
It  will  never  do  to  exaggerate  one  truth 
at   the   expense   of  another,  and  a  truth 
may  be  turned  into  a  falsehood  very,  very 


282      PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING. 

easily,  by  simply  being  either  too  much 
eiilarfred  or  too  much  diminished.  I  once 
heard  of  some  blind  men  who  were  taken 
to  see  a  memagerie.  They  had  gone 
around  the  animals,  and  four  of  them 
were  allowed  to  touch  an  elephant  as 
they  went  past.  They  were  discussing 
afterward  what  kind  of  a  creature  the 
elephant  was.  One  man,  who  had 
touched  its  tail,  said  the  elephant  was 
like  a  rope.  Another  of  the  blind  men, 
who  had  touched  his  hind  limb,  said, 
*'  No  such  thing  1  the  elephant  is  like  the 
trunk  of  a  tree."  Another,  who  had  felt 
Its  sides,  said,  ^'That  is  all  rubbish.  An 
elephant  is  a  thing  like  a  wall."  And 
the  fourth,  who  had  felt  its  ear,  said  that 
an  elephant  was  like  none  of  those  things; 
It  was  like  a  leather  bag.     Now,  men  look 


PREPARATION   FOR   LEARNING.       283 

at  truth  at  different  bits  of  it,  and  they  see 
different  things  of  course,  and  they  are 
very  apt  to  imagine  that  the  thing  which 
they  have  seen  is  the  whole  affair — the 
whole  thing.  In  reality,  we  can  only  see 
a  very  little  bit  at  a  time ;  and  we  must,^ 
I  think,  learn  to  believe  that  other  men 
can  see  bits  of  truth  as  well  as  ourselves. 
Your  views  are  just  what  you  see  with 
your  own  eyes ;  and  my  views  are  just 
what  I  see ;  and  what  I  see  depends  on 
just  where  I  stand,  and  what  you  see  de- 
pends on  just  where  you  stand  ;  and  truth 
is  ver>'  much  bigger  than  an  elephant, 
and  we  are  ver>^  much  blinder  than  any 
of  those  blind  men  as  we  come  to  look  at 
it. 


Christ   has  made   us   aware   that  it 


is 


quite  possible  for  a  man  to  have  ears  and 

19 


284      PREPARATION   FOR  LEARNING. 

hear  nothing,  and  to  have  eyes  and  see 
not.  One  of  the  disciples  saw  a  gieat 
deal  of  Christ,  and  he  never  knew  Him. 
*  ^  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you, 
Philip,  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known 
,Me?"  *'He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father  also.*'  Philip  had  never 
seen  Him,  He  had  been  looking  at  his 
own  spectacles,  perhaps,  or  at  something 
else,  and  had  never  seen  Him.  If  the 
instrument  had  been  in  order,  he  would 
have  seen  Christ.  And  I  would  just  add 
this  one  thing  more :  the  test  of  value  of 
the  different  verities  of  truth  depends 
upon  one  thing :  whether  they  have  or 
have  not  a  sanctifying  power.  That  is 
another  remarkable  association  in  the 
mind  of  Christ — of  sanctification  with 
truth — thinking  and  holiness — not  to  be 


PRKPARATION   FOR   LEARNING.      285 

found  in  any  of  tlie  sciences  or  in  any 
of  the  piiilosopliies.  It  is  peculiar  to 
the  Bible.  Christ  said  **  Sanctify  them 
through  Thy  truth.  Thy  Word  is  truth. »' 
Now,  the  value  of  any  question — the 
value  of  any  theological  question — de- 
pends upon  whether  it  has  a  sanctifying 
influence.  If  it  has  not,  donH  bother 
about  it.  Don't  let  it  disturb  your  minds 
until  you  have  exhausted  all  truths  that 
have  sanctification  within  them.  If  a 
truth  makes  a  man  a  better  man,  then 
let  him  focus  his  instrument  upon  it  and 
get  all  the  acquaintance  with  it  he  can. 
If  it  is  the  profane  babbling  of  science, 
falsely  so  called,  or  anything  that  has  an 
injurious  eflfect  upon  the  moral  and  spirit- 
ual nature  of  a  man,  it  is  better  let  alone. 
And  above  all,  let  us  remember  to  hold 


286     PREPARATION   FOR  LEARNING. 

the  truth  in  love.  That  is  the  most  sanc- 
tifying influence  of  all.  And  if  we  can 
carrv^  away  the  mere  lessons  of  toleration, 
and  leave  behind  us  our  censoriousness, 
and  criticalness,  and  harsh  judgments 
upon  one  another,  and  excommunicating 
of  everybody  except  those  who  think  ex- 
actly as  we  do,  the  time  we  shall  spend 
here  will  not  be  the  least  useful  parts  of 
our  lives. 


WHAT   IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 


WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 


"\/OUNG  men  are  learning  to  respect 
more,  perhaps,  than  ever  young 
men  have  done,  the  word  '  *  Christian. ' ' 
I  have  seen  the  time  when  it  was  syn- 
onymous with  cant  and  unreality  and 
strained  feeling  and  sanctimoniousness. 
But  although  that  day  is  not  quite  passed 
yet,  it  is  passing.  I  heard  this  definition 
the  other  day  of  a  Christian  man  by  a 
cynic  —  * '  A  Christian  man  is  a  man 
whose  great  aim  in  life  is  a  selfish  desire 
to  save  his  own  soul,  who,  in  order  to 


290  WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 


do  that,  goes  regularly  to  church,  and 
whose  supreme  hope  is  to  get  to  Heaven 
when  he  dies."  This  reminds  one  of 
Professor  Huxley's  examination  paper  in 
which  the  question  was  put — "What  is 
a  lobster?"  One  student  replied  that  a 
lobster  was  a  red  fish,  which  moves 
backwards.  The  examiner  noted  that 
this  was  a  very  good  answer,  but  for 
three  things.  In  the  first  place  a  lobster 
was  not  a  fish ;  second  it  was  not  red ; 
and  third  it  did  not  move  backwards. 
If  there  is  anything  that  a  Christian  is 
not,  it  is  one  v/ho  has  a  selfish  desire  to 
save  his  own  soul.  The  one  thing  which 
Christianity  tries  to  extirpate  from  a 
man's  nature  is  selfishness,  even  though 
it  be  the  losing  of  his  own  soul. 

Christianity,  as  we  understand  it  from 


WHAT   IS   A   CHRISTIAN?  29I 

Christ,  appeals  to  the  generous  side  of  a 
young  man's  nature,  and  not  to  the  sel- 
fish side.  In  the  new  version  of  the 
New  Testament  the  word  ^'soul"  is 
always  translated  in  this  connection  by 
the  word  *^life."  That  marks  a  revolu- 
tion in  popular  theology,  and  it  will 
make  a  revolution  in  every  Young  Man's 
Christian  Association  in  the  country 
where  it  comes  to  be  seen  that  a  man's 
Christianity  does  not  consist  in  merely 
saving  his  own  soul,  but  in  sanctifying 
and  purifying  the  lives  of  his  fellow-men. 
We  are  told  in  the  New  Testament  that 
Christianity  is  leaven,  and  'Meaven" 
comes  from  the  same  root-word  as  lever, 
meaning  that  which  raises  up,  which  ele- 
vates; and  a  Christian  young  man  is  a 
man  who  raises  up  or  elevates  the  lives 


a958  WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 

of  those  round  about  him.  We  are  also 
told  that  Christianity  is  salt,  and  salt  is 
that  which  saves  from  corruption.  What 
is  it  that  saves  the  life  of  the  world  from 
being  utterly  rotten,  but  the  Christian 
elements  that  are  in  it?  Matthew  Ar- 
nold has  said,  '^Show  me  ten  square 
miles  in  any  pait  of  the  world  outside 
Christianity  where  the  life  of  man  and 
the  purity  of  women  are  safe,  and  I  will 
give  Christianity  up,"  In  no  part  of  the 
world  is  there  any  such  ten  square  miles 
outside  Christianity.  Christian  men  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth  in  the  most  literal 
sense.  They,  and  they  alone,  keep  the 
world  from  utter  destruction. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  here  about  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations. 
Many  have  criticised  them.     They  have 


WHAT  IS   A   CHRISTIAN?  293 

been  the  target  for  a  great  deal  of  abuse. 
Many  of  the  best  young  men  have  sneered 
at  til  em,  and  turned  up  their  noses  at 
them,  and  denounced  them.  I  am  speak- 
ing with  absohite  sympathy  and  respect, 
and  even  enthusiasm,  for  Young  Men^s 
Christian  Associations.  But  I  will  turn 
for  one  instant  upon  those  men  who  turn 
against  them,  and  tell  them  that  it  is  not 
breadth  that  leads  them  to  do  that,  but 
what  one  might  call  the  narrowness  of 
breadth — that  breadth  which  denounces 
intolerance,  and  which  is  itself  too  intol- 
erant to  tolerate  intolerance.  And,  as 
some  one  says,  it  is  easier  to  criticise 
the  best  thing  superbly  than  to  do  the 
smallest  thing  indifferently. 

It  is  very  easy  to  criticise  the  methods 
and  aims  and  men  of  the  Youag  Men's 


294  WHAT   IS   A   CHRISTIAN? 

Christian  Associations.  If,  instead  of 
looking  on  and  criticising  those  who 
know  a  thing  or  two,  those  who  think 
they  are  wiser,  and  that  they  have  the 
whole  truth,  would  throw  themselves  in 
among  others  and  back  them  and  try  to 
work  alongside  of  them,  they  would  get 
perhaps  their  breadth  tempered  by  ear- 
nestness and  by  zeal,  because  the  narrow 
man  has  much  to  contribute  to  the  Chris- 
tian cause,  perhaps  more  than  the  broad 
man.  But  it  needs  all  kinds  of  people 
to  make  a  world ;  it  needs  all  kinds  of 
people  to  make  a  church,  and  every  type 
of  young  men  a  Christian  Association ; 
and  the  greatest  mistake  of  all  is  to  have 
every  man  stamped  in  the  same  stamp, 
so  that  if  you  met  him  in  a  railway  train 
one  hundred  miles  off,  you  would  know 


WHAT   IS   A   CHRISTIAN?  295 

him  as  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  man.  I  would  like 
to  find  many  who  would  not  wear  the 
badge  so  pronouncedly,  that  every  one 
should  know  them  at  a  glance. 

There  is  only  one  great  character  in 
the  world  that  can  really  draw  out  all 
that  is  best  in  men.  He  is  so  far  above 
all  others  in  influencing  men  for  good 
that  He  stands  alone.  That  man  was 
the  founder  of  Christianity.  To  be  a 
Christian  man  is  to  have  that  character 
for  our  ideal  in  life,  to  live  under  its 
influence,  to  do  what  He  would  wish  us 
to  do,  to  live  the  kind  of  life  He  would 
have  lived  in  our  house,  and  had  He  our 
day's  routine  to  go  through.  It  would 
not,  perhaps,  alter  the  forms  of  our  life, 
but  it  would  alter  the  spirit  and  aims 
and  motives  of  our  life,  and  the  Chris- 


296  WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 


tian  man  is  he  who  in  that  sense  lives 
under  the  influence  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  that  a  young 
tnan  wants  for  his  ideal  that  is  not  found 
in  Christ  You  v/ould  be  surprised  when 
you  come  to  know  who  Christ  is,  if  you 
have  not  thought  much  about  it,  to  find 
how  He  will  fit  in  with  all  human  needs, 
and  call  out  all  that  is  best  in  man.  The 
highest  and  manliest  character  that  ever 
lived  was  Christ.  One  incident  I  often 
think  of  and  wonder.  You  remember, 
when  He  hung  upon  the  cross,  there 
was  hf-nded  up  to  Him  a  vessel  contain- 
ing a  stupefying  drug,  supplied  by  a 
kind  society  of  ladies  in  Jerusalem,  who 
always  sent  it  to  criminals  when  being 
executed.  And  that  stupefying  drug  was 
handed  up  to  Christ's  lips.    And  we  read. 


WHAT  IS  A   CHRISTIAN?  297 

**  When  He  tasted  thereof  He  would  not 
dtink.-^  I  have  always  thought  that  one 
of  the  most  heroic  actions   I   have  ever 

read  of.  But  that  vras  only  one  ver>' 
small  side  of  Christ's  nature.  He  can 
be  everything  that  a  man  wants.  Paul 
tells  us  that  if  we  live  in  Christ  we  are 
changed  into  His  image.  All  that  a 
man  has  to  do,  then,  to  be  like  Christ, 
is  simply  to  live  in  friendship  with 
Christ,  and  the  character  follows. 

But  it  is  only  one  of  the  aims  of 
Christianity  to  make  the  best  men.  The 
next  thing  Christ  wants  to  do  is  to  m.ake 
the  best  v/orld.  And  He  tries  to  make 
the  best  world  by  setting  the  best  men 
loose  upon  the  world  to  influence  it  and 
refiect  Him  upon  it.  In  1874  a  religious 
movement  began  in  Edinburgh  Univer- 


29S  WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 

sity  among  the  students  themselves,  that 
Has  since  spread  to  some  of  the  best 
academic  institutions  in  America.  The 
students  have  a  hall,  and  there  they 
meet  on  Sundays,  or  occasionally  ou 
weekdays,  to  hear  addresses  from  their 
professors,  or  from  outside  eminent  men, 
on  Christian  topics.  There  is  no  com- 
mittee ;  there  are  no  rules ;  there  are  no 
reports.  Every  meeting  is  held  strictly 
in  private,  and  any  attempt  to  pose  before 
the  world  is  sternly  discouraged.  No 
paragraphs  are  put  into  the  journals ;  no 
addresses  are  reported.  The  meetings 
are  private,  quiet,  earnest,  and  whatso- 
ever student  likes  may  attend  them. 
That  is  all.  It  is  not  an  organization 
in  the  ordinary  sense,  it  is  a  **  leaven." 
In    all   the    schools   it   is   the    best   men 


WHAT  IS  A   CHRISTIAN?  299 

who  take  most  part  in  the  movement, 
and  among  the  schools  it  is  the  medical 
side  which  furnishes  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  students  to  the  meetings.  Some 
of  the  most  zealous  have  taken  high 
honors  in  their  examinations,  and  some 
have  been  in  the  first  class  of  university 
athletes.  It  is  not  a  movement  that  has 
laid  hold  of  vv-eak  or  worthless  students 
whom  nobody  respects,  but  one  that  is 
maintained  by  the  best  men  in  every 
department.  The  first  benefit  is  to  the 
students  themselves.  Take  Edinburgh, 
with  about  4000  students  drawn  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  and  living  in  rooms 
with  no  one  caring  for  them.  Taken 
away  from  the  moral  support  of  their 
previous  surroundings,  they  went  to  the 
bad  in  hundreds.     It  is  now  found  tha^ 


3CX)  WHAT   IS  A   CHRISTIAN? 

througli  this  movement  they  work  better, 
and  that  a  greater  percentage  pass  hon- 
orably through  the  university  portals  into 
life.  The  religious  meetings,  it  is  to  be 
obser^^ed,  are  never  allowed  to  interfere 
witli  the  work  of  the  students.  The 
second  result  is  to  be  seen  in  what  are 
called  university  settlements.  A  few 
m.en  will  band  themselves  together  and 
rent  a  house  in  the  lower  parts  of  the 
city  and  live  there.  They  do  no  preach- 
ing, no  formal  evangelization  work ;  but 
they  help  the  sick  and  they  arrange 
smoking  concerts,  and  contribute  to  the 
amusement  of  their  neighbors.  They 
simply  live  with  the  people,  and  trust 
that  their  example  will  produce  a  good 
effect.  Three  years  ago  they  printed  and 
distributed  among  themselves  the  follow- 


WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN?  30I 

ing  '* Programme  of  Christianity:'* — 
**Tg  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to 
give  liberty  to  the  captives,  to  comfort 
all  that  mourn,  to  give  beauty  for  ashes, 
the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of 
heaviness/*  I  suppose  there  are  few  of 
us  with  broken  hearts,  but  there  are  other 
people  in  the  world  besides  ourselveSj  and 
underneath  all  the  gayety  of  the  city 
there  is  not  a  street  in  which  there  are 
not  men  and  women  with  broken  hearts. 
Who  is  to  help  these  people?  No  one 
can  lift  them  up  in  any  way  except  those 
who  are  living  the  life  of  Christ,  and  it 
is  their  privilege  and  business  to  bind 
up  the  broken-hearted. 

I  want  to  urge  the  claims  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  on  the  strength  and  talent 
of  our  youth.     I  find  a  singular  want  of 


302  WHAT  IS  A  CHRISTIAN? 

men  in  the  Christian  ministry,  and  I 
think  it  would  be  at  least  worth  while 
for  some  of  you  to  look  around,  to  look 
at  the  men  who  are  not  filling  the 
churches,  to  look  at  the  needs  of  the 
crowds  who  throng  the  streets,  and  see 
if  you  could  do  better  with  your  life 
than  throw  yourself  into  that  work. 
The  advantage  of  the  ministry  is  that 
a  man's  whole  life  can  be  thrown  into 
the  carrying  out  of  that  programme  with- 
out any  deduction.  Another  advantage 
of  the  ministry  is  that  it  is  so  poorly 
paid  that  a  man  is  not  tempted  to  cut 
a  dash  and  shine  in  the  world,  but  can 
be  meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  like  his 
Master.  It  is  enough  for  a  servant  to 
be  like  his  master,  and  there  is  a  great 
attraction  in  seeking  obscurity,  even  iso- 


WHAT   IS   A   CHRISTIAN?    .         303 

lation,  if  one  can  be  following  the  high- 
est ideal. 

With  regard  to  the  question,  how  you 
shall  begin  the  Christian  life,  let  me 
remind  you  that  theology  is  the  most 
abstruse  thing  in  the  world,  but  that 
practical  religion  is  the  simplest  thing. 
If  any  of  you  want  to  know  how  to 
begin  to  be  a  Christian,  all  I  can  say 
is  that  you  should  begin  to  do  the  next 
thing  you  find  to  be  done  as  Christ  would 
have  done  it.  If  you  follow  Christ  the 
*'old  man'*  will  die  of  atrophy,  and  the 
* '  new  man  ' '  will  grow  day  by  day  under 
His  abiding  friendship. 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


T    WIIyL   give  a  note  or  two,    pretty 
fflucli  by  way  of  refreshing  the  mem- 
ory  about   the   Bible   and    how   to   look 
at  it. 

First  :  The  Bible  catne  out  of  religion^ 
not  religion  out  of  the  Bible,  The  Bible 
is  a  product  of  religion,  not  a  cause  of 
it  The  war  literature  of  America,  which 
culminated,  I  suppose,  in  the  publication 
of  President  Grant's  life,  came  out  of 
the  war ;  the  war  did  not  come  out  of 


807 


308         THS  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

the  literature.  And  so  in  the  distant 
past,  there  flowed  among  the  nations  of 
heathendom,  a  small,  warm  stream,  like 
the  Gulf  Stream  in  the  cold  Atlantic — 
a  small  stream  of  religion  ;  and  now  and 
then  at  intervals,  men,  carried  along  by 
this  stream,  uttered  themselves  in  words. 
The  historical  books  came  out  of  facts  ; 
the  devotional  books  came  out  of  expe- 
riences ;  the  letters  came  out  of  circum- 
stances ;  and  the  Gospels  came  out  of  all 
three.  That  is  where  the  Bible  came 
from.  It  came  out  of  religion  ;  religion 
did  not  come  out  of  the  Bible.  You  see 
the  difference.  The  religion  is  not,  then, 
in  the  writing  alone  ;  but  'in  those  facts, 
experiences,  circumstances,  in  the  his- 
tor>'  and  development  of  a  people  led 
and  taught  by  God.     And  it  is  not  the 


THE  STUDY  OK  THE   BIBLE.         309 

words  that  are  inspired  so  much  as  the 
men. 

Secondly  :  These  rnen  were  authors ; 
they  were  not  pens.  Their  individuality 
comes  out  on  every  page  they  wrote. 
They  were  different  in  mental  and  liter- 
ar}'  style  ;  in  insight ;  and  even  the  same 
writer  differs  at  different  times.  II.  Thes- 
salonians.  for  example,  is  considerably 
beneath  the  level  of  Romans,  and  III. 
John  is  beneath  the  level  of  I.  John.  A 
man  is  not  always  at  his  best.  These 
writers  did  not  know  they  were  writing 
a  Bible. 

Third  :  The  Bible  is  not  a  book;  it  is  a 
library.  It  consists  of  sixty-six  books. 
It  is  a  great  convenience,  but  in  some 
respects  a  great  misfortune,  that  these 
books  have  always   been   bound   up  to 


3IO         THE  STUDY  OF   THE   BIBLE. 

gether  and  given  out  as  one  book  to  tlie 
world,  when  they  are  not ;  because  that 
has  led  to  endless  mistakes  in  theology 
and  in  practical  life. 

Fourth  :  These  books,  w^hich  make  up 
this  library,  written  at  inter^^-als  of  hun- 
dreds of  years,  were  collected  after  the 
last  of  the  writers  w^as  dead — long  after 
— by  human  hands.  Where  were  the 
bocks?  Take  the  New  Testament. 
There  were  four  lives  of  Christ.  One 
was  in  Rome ;  one  was  in  Southern 
Italy  ;  one  was  in  Palestine  ;  one  in 
Asia  IMinor.  There  were  twenty-one 
letters.  Five  were  in  Greece  and  Mace- 
donia ;  five  in  Asia ;  one  in  Rome. 
The  rest  were  in  the  pockets  of  private 
individuals.  Theophilus  had  Acts.  They 
were    collected    undesignedly.      For    ex- 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE   BIBI.E.         3II 

ample,  the  letter  to  the  Galatians  was 
written  to  the  Church  in  Galatia.  Some- 
body would  make  a  copy  or  two,  and 
put  it  into  the  hands  of  the  members 
of  the  different  churches,  and  they  would 
find  their  way  not  only  to  the  churches 
in  Galatia,  but  after  an  interval  to  nearly 
all  the  churches.  In  those  days  the  Chris- 
tians scattered  up  and  down  through  the 
world,  exchanged  copies  of  those  letters, 
very  much  as  geologists  up  and  down  the 
world  exchange  specimens  of  minerals  at 
the  present  time,  or  entomologists  ex- 
change specimens  of  butterflies.  And 
after  a  long  time  a  number  of  the  books 
began  to  be  pretty  well  known.  In  the 
third  century  the  New  Testament  con- 
sisted of  the  following  books  :  The  four 
Gospels,   Acts,    thirteen   letters   of  Paul, 


312         THE  STUDY   OF  THK   BIBLE. 

I.  JoHn,  I.  Peter  ;  and  in  addition,  tlie 
Epistles  of  Barnabas  and  Hernias.  This 
was  not  called  the  New  Testament,  but 
the  Christian  Library.  Then  these  last 
books  were  discarded.  They  ceased  to 
be  regarded  as  upon  the  same  level  as 
the  others.  In  the  fourth  century  the 
canon  was  closed — that  is  to  say,  a  list 
was  made  up  of  the  books  which  were 
to  be  regarded  as  canonical.  And  then 
long  after  that  tliey  were  stitched  to- 
gether and  made  up  into  one  book — 
hundreds  of  years  after  that.  Who  made 
up  the  complete  list?  It  was  never  form- 
ally made  up.  The  bishops  of  the  differ- 
ent churches  Tvould  draw  up  a  list  each 
of  the  books  that  they  thought  ought 
to  be  put  into  this  Testament.  The 
churches  also  would  give  their  opinion. 


THK  STUDY   OF  THK   BIBLE.         313 

Sometimes  councils  would  meet  and  talk 
it  over — discuss  it.  Scholars  like  Jerome 
would  investigate  the  authenticity  of  the 
different  documents,  and  there  came  to 
be  a  general  consensus  of  the  cliurches 
on  the  matter.  But  no  formal  closing 
of  the  canon  was  ever  attempted. 

And  lastly  :  All  religions  have  their 
sacred  books,  just  as  the  Christians  have 
theirs.  Why  is  it  necessary  to  remind 
ourselves  of  that?  If  you  ask  a  man 
why  he  believes  such  and  such  a  thing, 
he  will  tell  you.  Because  it  is  in  the 
Bible.  If  you  ask  him,  *'How  do  you 
know  the  Bible  is  true?"  he  will  prob- 
ably reply,  **  Because  it  says  so.**  Now, 
let  that  man  remember  that  the  sacred 
books  of  all  the  other  religions  make 
the  same  claim  ;   and  while  it  is  quite 


314         THE   STUDY  OF  THE   BIBI.E. 


enough  among  ourselves  to  talk  about 
a  thing  being  true  because  it  is  in  the 
Bible,  we  come  in  contact  with  out- 
siders, and  have  to  meet  the  skepticism 
of  the  day.  We  must  go  far  deeper 
than  that.  The  religious  books  of  the 
other  religions  claim  to  be  far  more  di- 
vine in  their  origin  than  do  ours.  For 
example,  the  Mohammedans  claim  for 
the  Koran — a  large  section  of  them,  at 
least — that  it  was  uncreated,  and  that  it 
lay  before  the  throne  of  God  from  the 
beginning  of  time.  They  claim  it  was 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  angel  Gabriel, 
who  brought  it  down  to  Mahomet,  and 
dictated  it  to  him,  and  allowed  him  at 
long  intervals  to  have  a  look  at  the  orig- 
inal book  itself — bound  with  silk  and 
studded  with  precious  stones.     That  is  a 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE.        315 

claim  of  much  higher  Divinity  than  we 
claim  for  our  book ;  and  if  we  simply 
have  to  rely  upon  the  Bible's  testimony 
to  its  own  verity,  it  is  for  the  same  rea- 
son the  Mohammedan  would  have  you 
believe  his  book,  and  the  Hindu  would 
have  you  put  your  trust  in  the  Vedas. 
That  is  why  thorough  Bible  study  is  of 
such  importance.  We  can  get  to  the 
bottom  of  truth  in  itself,  and  be  able  to 
give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us. 
Now  may  I  give  yon,  before  I  stop, 
just  a  couple  of  examples  of  how  the 
Bible  came  out  of  religion,  and  not  re- 
ligion out  of  the  Bible?  Take  one  of 
the  letters.  Just  see  how  it  came  out 
of  the  circumstances  of  the  time.  The 
first  of  the  letters  that  was  written  will 
do  very  well  as   an   example.     It  is  the 


3l6         THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

1st  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.  In  the 
year  52  Paul  went  to  Europe.  He  spent 
three  Sundays  in  Thessalonica,  created  a 
great  disturbance  by  his  preaching,  and 
a  riot  sprang  up,  and  his  life  was  in 
danger.  He  was  smuggled  out  of  the 
city  at  night  —  not,  however,  before 
having  founded  a  small  church.  He 
was  unable  to  go  back  to  Thessalo- 
nica, although  he  tried  it  two  or  three 
times  ;  but  he  wrote  a  letter.  That  is 
the  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians.  You 
see  how  it  sprang  out  of  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time.  Take  a  second  ex- 
ample. Let  us  take  one  of  the  lives  of 
Christ.  Suppose  you  take  the  life  re- 
corded by  Mark.  Now,  from  internal 
evidences  you  can  make  out  quite  clear- 
ly how  it  was  written,   by  whom  it  was 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE.        317 

written,  and  to  whom  it  was  written. 
You  understand  at  once  it  was  written 
to  a  Roman  public.  If  I  were  writing  a 
letter  to  a  red  Indian  I  would  make  it 
very  different  from  a  letter  I  would  write 
to  a  European.  Now,  Mark  puts  in  a 
number  of  points  which  he  would  net  if 
he  had  been  writing  to  Greeks.  For  ex- 
ampl^s,  Mark  almost  never  quotes  proph- 
ecy. The  Romans  did  not  know  any- 
thiu  r  about  prophecy.  Then,  he  gives 
little  explanations  of  Jewish  customs. 
When  I  was  writing  home  I  had  to  give 
some  little  explanations  of  American  cus- 
toms— for  example,  Commencement  Day. 
When  Mark  writes  to  Rome  about  things 
happening  farther  East,  he  gives  elabor- 
ate explanations.  Again,  Mark  is  fond 
cf  I^atin  words— writing  to  the  Latins, 


3l8         THE  STUDY   OF  TPIE   BIBI.E. 

who  could  understand  them.  He  talks 
about  * '  centurion, "  "  prsetorium, ' '  and 
others.  Then,  he  always  turns  Jewish 
money  into  Roman  money,  just  as  I 
should  say  a  book,  if  I  were  writing  to 
Europe  about  it,  costs  two  shillings,  in- 
stead of  fifty  cents.  Mark,  for  example, 
says,  **two  mites,  which  make  a  codran- 
tes,''  He  refers  to  the  coins  which  the 
Romans  knew.  In  these  ways  we  find 
out  that  the  Bible  came  out  of  the  cir- 
cumstances and  'the  places  and  the  times 
in  which  it  was  written.  Then  if  we 
will  we  can  learn  where  Mark  got.  his 
information,  to  a  large  extent.  It  is  an 
extremely  interesting  study.  I  should 
like  to  refer  you  to  Godet's  *'New  Tes- 
tament Studies,''  where  you  will  get  this 
worked  out.     I^et  me  just  indicate  to  yon 


THE  STUDY  OF   THK  BIBLE.         319 

how  these  sources  of  information  are  ar- 
rived at — the  principal  sources  of  infor- 
mation. There  are  a  number  of  graphic 
touches  in  the  book  which  indicate  an 
eye-witness.  Mark  himself  could  not 
have  been  the  eye-vv'itness  ;  and  yet  there 
are  a  number  of  graphic  touches  which 
show  that  he  got  his  account  from  an 
eye-witness.  You  will  find  them,  for 
example,  in  Mark  iv.  38 ;  x.  50;  vi.  31 ; 
vii.  34.  You  v/ill  find  also  graphic 
touches  indicating  an  ear-witness — as  if 
the  voice  lingered  in  the  mind  of  the 
writer.  For  example,  the  retention  -of 
Aramaic  in  v.  41  ;  and  in  vii.  34 — ''Z^- 
litha  cttmi;  Damsel,  I  say  unto  thee, 
arise. '^  He  retained  the  Aramaic  words 
Christ  said,  as  I  would  say  in  Scotland, 
**My  wee   lassie,    rise   up.**      The  very 


320         THE  STUDY  OF  THK   BIBLE. 

words  lingered  in  his  ear,  and  be  put 
them  in  in  the  original.  Then  there 
are  occasional  phrases  indicating  the 
moral  impression  produced — v.  15  ;  x. 
24 ;  X.  32.  Now,  INIark  himself  was  not 
either  the  eye-witness  or  ear-witness. 
There  is  internal  evidence  that  he  got 
his  information  from  Peter.  We  know 
very  well  that  Mark  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  Peter's.  When  Peter  came  to 
Mark's  house  in  Jerusalem,  after  he  got 
cut  of  prison,  the  very  serv^ant  knew  his 
voice,  so  that  he  must  have  been  well 
known  in  the  house.  Therefore  he  was 
a  friend  of  Mark's.  The  coloring  and 
notes  seem  to  be  derived  from.  Peter. 
There  is  a  sense  of  wonder  and  admira- 
tlon  which  you  find  all  through  the  book, 
very  like    Peter's    way    of   looking    at 


TKE  STUDY  OF  THE   BIBLE.         231 

things— i.  27  ;  i.  33  ;  i-  45  ;  ii-  12  ;  v.  42 ; 
and  a  great  many  others.  But,  still  more 
interesting,  Mark  quotes  the  words,  *  *  Get 
thee  behind  Me,  Satan,"  which  were  said 
to  Peter's  shame,  but  he  omits  the  pre- 
ceding words  said  to  his  honor — "Thou 
art  Peter.  On  this  rock,"  and  so  on. 
Peter  had  learned  to  be  humble  when  he 
was  telling  Mark  about  it.  Compare  Mark 
viii.  27-33,  '^^^'^  Matthew's  account — xvi. 
13-33.  Mark  also  omits  the  fine  achieve- 
ment of  Peter — walking  on  the  lake. 
When  Peter  was  talking  to  Mark  he 
never  said  anything  about  it.  Compare 
vi.  50  with  Matthew's  account — xiv.  28. 
And  Mark  alone  records  the  two  warn- 
ings given  to  Peter  by  the  two  cock-crow- 
ings,  making  his  fall  the  more  inexcus- 
able.    See  Mark  xiv.  30  ;  also  the  68th 


322         THE  STUDY  OF  THE   BIBLE. 

verse  and  the  y2d.  Peter  did  not  write 
the  book;  we  know  that,  because  Peter's 
style  is  entirely  diflferent.  None  of  the 
four  Gospels  have  the  names  of  the  wri- 
ters attached  to  them.  We  have  had  to 
find  all  these  things  out ;  but  Mark's 
Gospel  is  obviously  made  up  of  notes 
from  Peter's  evangelistic  addresses. 

So  we  see  from  these  simple  examples 
how  human  a  book  the  Bible  is,  and  how 
the  Divinity  in  it  has  worked  through 
human  means.  The  Bible,  in  fact,  has 
come  out  of  religion  ;  not  religion  out 
of  the  Bible. 


A  TALK   ON   BOOKS 


A  TALK   ON   BOOKS. 


IV  /r  Y  object  at  this  time  is  to  give 
encouragement  and  help  to  the 
*' duffers,"  the  class  of  "hopeful  duf- 
fers. ' '  Brilliant  students  have  every  help, 
but  second-class  students  are  sometimes 
neglected  and  disheartened.  I  have  great 
sympathy  with  the  "duffers,"  because  I 
was  only  a  second-rate  student  myself. 
The  subject  of  my  talk  with  you  is 

Books. 

A  gentleman  in  Scotland  who  has  an 
excellent  library  has  placed  on  one  side 


326  A   TALK   ON   BOOKS. 

of  the  room  his  heavy,  sombre  tomes,  and 
over  tho«e  shelves  the  form  of  an  owl. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  room  are  ar- 
ranged the  lighter  books,  and  over  these 
is  the  figure  of  a  bird  known  in  Scotland 
as  "the  dipper."  This  is  a  most  sensible 
division.  The  ' '  owl  books ' '  are  to  be 
mastered, — the  great  books,  such  as  Gib- 
bon's "Rome,"  Butler's  "Analogy," 
Dorner's  "Person  of  Christ,"  and  text- 
books of  philosoph}'  and  science.  Every 
student  should  master  one  or  two,  at 
least,  of  such  ' '  owl  books, ' '  to  exercise 
his  faculties  and  give  him  concentra- 
tiveness.  I  do  not  intend  to  linger  at 
this  side  of  the  librar}',  but  will  cross 
over  to  the  "dipper  books,"  which 
are  for  occasional  reading: — for  stimu- 
lus,   for  guidance,   recreation.     I  wall  be 


A   TALK  ON    BOOKS.  327 

A  UTOBIOGRAPHICAL. 

When  I  was  a  student  in  lodgings  I 
began  to  form  a  library,  whicli  I  arranged 
along  the  mantleshelf  of  my  room.  It 
did  not  contain  many  books  ;  but  it  held 
as  many  as  some  students  could  afford  to 
purchase,  and,  if  wisely  chosen,  as  many 
as  one  could  well  use.  My  first  purchase 
was  a  volume  of  extracts  from  Ruskin's 
works,  which  then  in  their  complete  form 
were  very  costly.  Ruskin  taught  me  to 
use  my  eyes.  Men  are  born  blind  as 
bats  or  kittens,  and  it  is  Ions:  before 
men's  eyes  are  opened  ;  some  men  never 
learn  to  see  as  long  as  thc}^  live.  I  often 
wondered,  if  there  was  a  Creator,  why 
He  had  not  made  the  world  more  beau- 
tiful.    Would    not   crimson    and    scarlet 


328  A   TALK    ON   BOOKS. 

colors  have  been  far  richer  than  green 
and  browns  ?  But  Ruskin  taught  me  to 
see  the  world  as  it  is,  and  it  soon  be- 
came a  new  world  to  me,  full  of  charm 
and  loveliness.  Now  I  can  linger  beside 
a  ploughed  field  and  revel  in  the  afiSu- 
ence  of  color  and  shade  v/hich  are  to 
be  seen  in  the  newly  turned  furrows, 
and  I  gaze  in  wonder  at  the  liquid  amber 
of  the  two  feet  of  air  above  the  brown 
earth.  Now^  the  colors  and  shades  of  the 
woods  are  a  delight,  and  at  ever)-  turn 
my  eyes  are  surprised  at  fresh  charm.s. 
The  rock  which  I  had  supposed  to  be 
naked  I  saw  clothed  with  lichens — 
patches  of  color — marvellous  organisms, 
frail  as  the  ash  of  a  cigar,  thin  as  brown 
paper,  yet  growing  and  fructifying  in 
s-oite  of  wind  and  rain,  of  scorching  sun 


A  TALK   OX   BOOKS.  329 

and  biting  frost.     I  owe  much  to  Ruskin 

for  teaching  me  to  see. 

Next  on  my  mantleshelf  was  Emerson. 
I  discovered  Emerson  for  myself  When 
I  asked  what  Emerson  was,  one  authority 
pronounced  him  a  great  man  ;  another 
as  confidently  wrote  him  down  a  hum- 
bug. So  I  silently  stuck  to  Emerson. 
Carlyle  I  could  not  read.  After  wading 
through  a  page  of  Carlyle  I  felt  as  if 
I  had  been  whipped.  Carlyle  scolded 
too  much  for  my  taste,  and  he  seemed 
to  me  a  great  man  gone  delirious.  But 
in  Emerson  I  found  what  I  would  fain 
have  sought  in  Carlyle  ;  and,  moreover, 
I  was  soothed  and  helped.  Emerson 
taught  me  to  see  wuth  the  mind. 

Next  on  my  shelf  came  two  or  three 
volumes   of  George   Eliot's   works,   from 


330  A   TALK  ON   BOOKS. 

which  I  gained  some  knowledge  and  a 
further  insight  into  many  philosophical 
and  social  questions.  But  my  chief  debt 
to  George  Eliot  at  that  time  was  that  she 
introduced  me  to  pleasant  characters — 
nice  people — and  especially  to  one  imag- 
inary young  lady  whom  I  was  in  love 
with  one  whole  winter,  and  it  diverted 
my  mind  in  solitude.  A  good  novel  is 
a  valuable  acquisition,  and  it  supplies 
companionship  of  a  pleasant  kind. 

iVmongst  my  small  residue  of  books  I 
must  name  Channing's  works.  Before  I 
read  Channing  I  doubted  whether  there 
was  a  God  ;  at  least  I  would  rather  have 
believed  that  there  were  no  God.  After 
becoming  acquainted  with  Channing  I 
could  believe  there  was  a  God,  and  I 
was   glad   to   believe  in   Him,   for   I  felt 


A   TALK  ON   BOOKS.  33 1 

drawn  to  the  good  and  gracious  Sover- 
eign of  all  things.  Still,  I  needed  fur- 
ther what  I  found  in  F.  W.  Robertson, 
the  British  officer  in  the  pulpit — bravest, 
truest  of  men — who  dared  to  speak  what 
he  believed  at  all  hazards.  From  Rob- 
ertson I  learned  that  God  is  human ; 
that  we  ma}^  have  fellowship  with  Him, 
because  He  sympathizes  with  us. 

One  day  as  I  was  looking  over  my 
mantelshelf  library,  it  suddenly  struck 
me  that  all  these  authors  of  mine  were 
heretics — these  were  dangerous  books. 
Undesignedly  I  had  found  stimulus  and 
help  from  teachers  who  were  not  credited 
by  orthodoxy.  And  I  have  since  found 
that  much  of  the  good  to  be  got  from 
books  is  to  be  gained  from  authors  often 
classed   as  dangerous,    for   these  provoke 


inquiry,  and  exercise  one's  powers.  To- 
wards the  end  of  my  shelf  I  had  one  or 
two  humorous  works ;  chief  amongst 
them  all  being  Mark  Twain.  His  hu- 
mor is  peculiar ;  broad  exaggeration,  a 
sly  simplicity,  comical  situations,  and 
surprising  turns  of  expressions ;  but  to 
me  it  has  been  a  genuine  fund  of  humor. 
The  humorous  side  of  a  student's  nature 
needs  to  be  considered,  and  where  it  is 
undeveloped,  it  should  be  cultivated.  I 
have  known  many  instances  of  good 
students  who  seemed  to  have  no  sense 
of  humor. 

I  will  not  recommend  any  of  m^^  favor- 
ite books  to  another;  they  have  done  me 
good,  but  they  might  not  suit  another 
man.  Every  man  must  discover  his  own 
books :  but  when  he  has  found   what  fits 


A  TALK  ON   BOOKS.  333 

in  with  his  tastes,  what  stimulates  hiin 
to  thought,  what  supplies  a  want  in  his 
nature,  and  exalts  him  in  conception  and 
feeling,  that  is  the  book  for  the  student, 
be  what  it  may.  This  brings  me  to 
speak  of 

The  Friendship  of  Books. 

To  fall  in  love  with  a  good  book  is  one 
of  the  greatest  events  that  can  befall  us. 
It  is  to  have  a  new  influence  pouring 
itself  into  our  life,  a  new  teacher  to  in- 
spire and  refine  us,  a  new  friend  to  be 
by  our  side  always,  who,  when  life  grows 
narrow  and  weary,  will  take  us  into  his 
wider  and  calmer  and  higher  world. 
Whether  it  be  biography,  introducing  us 
to  some  humble  life  made  great  by  duty 
done ;  or  history,  opening  vistas  into  the 


334  A   TALK   ON   BOOKS. 


movements  and  destinies  of  nations  that 
have  passed  away ;  or  poetry,  making 
music  of  all  the  common  things  around 
us,  and  filling  the  fields  and  the  skies 
and  the  work  of  the  city  and  the  cottage 
with  eternal  meanings, — whether  it  be 
these,  or  story-books,  or  religious  books, 
or  science,  no  one  can  become  the  friend 
even  of  one  good  book  without  being 
made  wiser  and  better.  Do  not  think 
I  am  going  to  recommend  any  such  book 
to  you.  The  beauty  of  a  friend  is  that 
we  discover  him.  And  we  must  each 
taste  the  books  that  are  accessible  to  us 
for  ourselves.  Do  not  be  disheartened 
at  first  if  you  like  none  of  them.  That 
is  possibly  their  fault,  not  3'ours.  But 
search,  and  search  till  you  find  what  you 
like.     In    amazingly   cheap   form — for   a 


A   TALK   ON   BOOKS.  335 

few  pence,  indeed — almost  ail  the  best 
books  are  now  to  be  had ;  and  I  think 
ever}^  one  owes  it  as  a  sacred  duty  to  his 
mind  to  start  a  little  library  of  his  own. 
How  much  do  we  not  do  for  our  bodies  ? 
How  much  thought  and  money  do  they 
not  cost  us?  And  shall  we  not  think 
a  little,  and  pay  a  little,  for  the  cloth- 
ing and  adorning  of  the  imperishable 
mind?  This  private  library  may  begin, 
perhaps,  with  a  single  volume,  and  grow 
at  the  rate  of  one  or  two  a  year;  but 
these,  well  chosen  and  well  mastered,  will 
become  such  a  fountain  of  strength  and 
wisdom  that  each  shall  be  eager  to  add 
to  his  store.  A  dozen  books  accumulated 
in  this  way  may  be  better  than  a  whole 
library.  Do  not  be  distressed  if  you  do 
not  like  time-honored  books,  or  classical 


33^  A   TALK  ON   BOOKS. 

works,  or  recommended  books.  Choose 
for  yourself;  trust  yourself;  plant 'your- 
self on  your  own  instincts  ;  that  which  is 
natural  for  us,  that  which  nourishes  us 
and  gives  us  appetite,  is  that  w4iich  is 
right  for  us.  We  have  all  different 
minds,  and  w^e  are  all  at  different  stages 
of  growth.  Some  other  day  we  may 
find  food  in  the  recommended  book, 
though  we  should  possibly  starve  on  it 
to-day.  The  mind  develops  and  changes, 
and  the  favorites  of  this  3^ear,  also,  may 
one  day  cease  to  interest  us.  Nothing 
better,  indeed,  can  happen  to  us  than  to 
lose  interest  in  a  book  we  have  often 
read;  for  it  means  that  it  has  done  its 
work  upon  us,  and  brought  us  up  to  its 
level,  and  taught  us  all  it  had  to  teach. 


^be  Bltemus  Xibrarv, 

A  choice  collection  of  Standard  and  Popular  books, 
handsomely  printed  on  fine  paper,  from  large  clear  type, 
and  bound  in  handy  volume  size  in  faultless  styles  : 

1.  Sesame    and    Lilies.     Three   lectures.     By    John 

Ruskin. 

I.  Of  King's  Treasuries. 
II.  Of  Queen's  Gardens. 
III.  Of  the  Mystery  of  Life. 

2.  The  Pleasures   of    Life.     By  Sir  John   Lubbock, 

M.  P.,  F.  R.  S.,  D.  C.  L.,  LL.  D.       Complete 
in  one  volume. 

3.  The  Essays  of  Lord  Francis  Bacon,  with  Memoirs 

and  Notes. 

4.  Thoughts  of  the  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  Anto- 

ninus.    Translated  by  George  Long. 

5.  A  Selection  from  the  Discourses  of  Epictetus  with 

the  Encheridion.     Translated  by  George  Long. 

6.  Essays,  First  Series.     By  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

7.  Essays,  Second  Series.     By  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

8.  Cranford.     By  Mrs.  Gaskell. 

9.  Of  the    Imitation  of  Christ.       Four   books  com- 

plete in  one  volume.     By  Thomas  A  Kempis. 

10.  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.     By  Oliver  Goldsmith. 

11.  Letters,  Sentences  and  Maxims.     By  Lord  Ches- 

terfield.    "  Masterpieces    of   good    taste,  good 
writing,  and  good  sense." 

12.  The  Idle  Thoughts  of  an  Idle  Fellow.     By  Jerome 

K.  Jerome.     A  book  for  an  Idle  Holiday. 

13.  Tales  from  Shakespeare.     By  Charles  and  Mary 

Lamb,  with   an   introduction   by   Rev.   Alfred 
Ainger,  M.  A. 


^5 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 
Goleta,  California 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  D. 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


AVAILABLE  FOR 

r--CULATION  /^"'Kri 

mam 


^^^f^ 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


B     000  009  664 


>/f 


■(  ( 


